Letter to the Editor: Dismissal of DCU startling

As a strong proponent of the benefits of diversity, I was startled by the ease with which many of Duke's professors dismissed DCU's arguments for political diversity in the humanities, as cited in Cindy Yee's articel, "DCU sparks varied reactions."

It seems painfully obvious that a professor's political viewpoint reflects his or her core interests and values, and that these same values affect that professor's research and academic stance.

In these enlightened times when scholars pour so much energy into theses regarding the profound impacts of race and gender on all areas of intellectual inquiry, to make an about-face when the issue of political diversity arises is absurd.

I fail to see a significant difference between the administration-approved Black Faculty Strategic Initiative and the kind of initiative DCU appears to be proposing---both signify well--intentioned efforts to add under-represented persons to Duke's academic arsenal in order to increase dialogue and the diversity of educational opportunities on campus.

I was most disturbed that Dr. Robert Brandon, whose specialty is the philosophy of science, would make the pseudoscientific leap from correlation to causation in his assertion that, because conservatives are under-represented in academia, they must be less intelligent than liberals.

I hope the good professor is brave enough to extend his smug generalizations to all racial, sexual, and socio-economic groups who currently find themselves in the minority on Duke's faculty.

If Duke hopes to remain a respectable forum for intellectual discourse, we should continue to seek diversity in all forms, not simply those popular forms that will garner public approval.

John Miller
Trinity '06