There are protected classes at Ohio State

Although Ohio State University claims “The university recruits and selects the most qualified individuals for open positions” when you read who is “protected” by the policies of affirmative action and equal opportunity, you see that isn’t true.

“Ohio State does not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, color, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, genetic information, HIV/AIDS status, military status, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or protected veteran status, or any other bases under the law, in its education program or activity, which includes employment.

In addition, the university complies with Executive Order 2019-05D, which prohibits any Ohio State employee from discriminating against any other employee or applicant on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, national origin (ancestry), military status (past, present or future), disability, age (40 years or older), status as a parent during pregnancy and immediately after the birth of a child, status as a parent of a young child, status as a foster parent, genetic information, or sexual orientation, as those terms are defined in Ohio law, federal law, and previous Executive Orders, in making any of the following employment-related decisions:

a. Hiring b. Layoff c. Termination d. Transfer e. Promotion f. Demotion g. Rate of Compensation h. Eligibility for In-Service Training Programs

Then we get into a long list of definitions which includes:

Discrimination (disparate treatment and disparate impact) occurs when an adverse action is taken under university authority against a university community member in an educational program or activity and the action is based upon one’s s protected class status. Disparate treatment occurs when one suffers less favorable treatment than others because of their protected class status. Disparate impact occurs when a university policy or practice, although neutral on its face, adversely impacts persons in a protected class.

There is no recourse under university rules if a healthy, white male is not selected for the job even if he is the most qualified, or if he is on the job and experiencing harassment, bullying, unequal assignments, hate speech, unwanted sexual advancements, cyber threats, political discrimination, etc. He’s not protected. But a transfemale lesbian with Asian heritage could file for discrimination for exactly the same workplace experiences.  Actually, the rules are not for the workplace—they include off campus and virtual spaces.

And yes, the pregnancy policy uses the words, “status as a parent during pregnancy” rather than “pregnant woman,” because we all know that in the 21st century men can be mothers too.

This hiring/enrollment policy is not new, but it is regularly revised (I’m quoting from a draft revision) to keep up with evolving identity politics and social injustices.  When I was responsible for hiring a paraprofessional assistant back in the early 1990s, I was first required to interview candidates which common sense would disqualify in the “real” world of business.  I remember the ex-convict who wanted a grounds keeping, outdoor job, but had worked as a student staff in one of the libraries 20 years before so he was sent by personnel and I had to interview him.  Or a candidate who was in a wheelchair and would not be able to shelve books higher than her head or get her wheelchair through the of book shelves aisles.

Affirmative Action, Equal Employment Opportunity and Non-Discrimination/Harassment policy (osu.edu)

Dear President Gee

You probably don't remember me, but we met during your first round as OSU's president when I went to a public meeting to "meet the new guy on campus" and boldly asked what you intended to do about the leaky roof over my library which was putting our books and computers at risk. Ah, the good old days, when one could ask questions face to face. That building's gone now, replaced by the one I helped plan, and you are back at Ohio State.

I'm writing to tell you I met one of your wonderful students today. Not only am I impressed with the quality of our young people, but I feel safer too--he's in the National Guard. We had a delightful time volunteering together on a political campaign project for McCain-Palin.

However, as Glenn Beck would say, I need to wrap duct tape around my head to keep it from exploding over what I learned about the abusive behavior of your faculty at Ohio State. It was shocking and alarming, and as a tax payer, I recommend an investigation. I was aware of the brainwashing going on in the 80s and 90s, but I don't think it was anything like today. I think OSU's faculty of 20 years ago had more integrity, and weren't so monolithic in their views and politics.

He told me that he has seen every one of Michael Moore's movies in his college classes! It was required. One was a biology course, one was a political science course, and I've forgotten the other two. For one class final in a Latin American history course the only question was to write an essay on the seven best things Fidel Castro had done for Cuba. In another course where the students needed to write a persuasive paper, he chose "Why the U.S. needs to drill in ANWR." His instructor, an honest but not particularly ethical woman, told him at the outset he'd need to choose another topic. She'd have to flunk him because he'd never be able to persuade her, no matter how good his argument or bibliography, she said. He says the ridiculing and trashing of the Bush administration has been relentless in all his classes.

He also told me he doesn't know why we hear so much about unemployment--he has three jobs! After volunteering, he was going to go play golf with his dad, retired military, who was in town visiting.

Dr. Gee. Tell me. What is going on at Ohio State? Whatever happened to a liberal education where students were taught and encouraged to think on their own? Why are you asking for money for buildings and landscaping if all you're producing there is a graveyard for young minds?

Why our college faculties are so liberal

It may not be what it seems. Some campus faculty are 100% liberal/progressive; the least liberal might be 80%! For my field, library science, it is so out of wack we fall off the edge and make the ACLU look like the John Birch Society. A new study looks at the various strawmen that both liberals and conservatives build to explain why liberals are more likely go on for the doctorate (the license to drive on the big time campuses), than conservatives. It isn't grade point. Moderates score lower than either liberals or conservatives, who score about the same. It isn't a hostile environment on campus (that would have been my guess as the number one reason). It seems to be based on ideas and ideals based on differing personality traits.

"Instead they hypothesized that the bulk of the ideological imbalance in academia is the result of differing personality traits. And so the scholars picked four traits -- the importance placed on raising a family, making money, contributing original work to a particular field and developing a meaningful philosophy of life -- and matched them up with students' political self-definitions. "Ideology," they wisely write, "represents far more than a collection of abstract political values." Liberalism, they found, "is more closely associated with a desire for excitement, an interest in creative outlets and an aversion to a structured work environment. Conservatives express far greater interest in financial success and stronger desires to raise families."

Yes, that makes a lot of sense. Conservatives keep the economy running, providing the taxes for the sandboxes of the liberals. I wonder if they've looked at the relationship between liberals' desire for risk and other harmful behaviors like gambling, drug use, promiscuity, living with diseased and dying trees in the forest rather than removing the fire hazard, building on fault lines and on coastal hurricane zones, and riding a bicycle to work on busy hi-ways. Story here; the report is for the American Enterprise Institute by Matthew Woessner of Penn State, Harrisburg (the conservative), and his wife, April Kelly-Woessner (the liberal), of Elizabethtown College -- called "Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don't Get Doctorates."

Are the smartest and best educated becoming more helpless?

or do they just expect more? In a survey of faculty and staff at Ohio State, the staff rated higher on job satisfaction than faculty. 68% of staff said they were satisfied; 65% of faculty were. The faculty (43%) also had more problems finding backup child care or temporary child care than the staff (38%).

When you think benefits, you're probably out of date--vacation, health, holidays. Both the faculty and staff have bunches of benefits--many of which I never used at all when I was faculty (but our net salaries are reduced to pay for all of these):

same sex domestic partner health benefits
sponsored dependent health benefits (I think that means they live in the household)
child care facilities
state of the art recreation facilities
special rooms for nursing parents
paid parental leave
lunch and learn programs
weight and tobacco management programs
elder care resource and referral
tuition assistance
adoption assistance
relocation assistance
and so forth

But they can't find back up child care. Tsk. Tsk.

4135

Welcome to libraryland, lawyers

For years, library graduate schools have been churning out more librarians than there are jobs. The best jobs are usually in the larger cities with a few amenities. If you're willing to take a job with a low salary and all the turnips you can eat, you might get an interview or two. Annoyed Librarian blogs about this, and she has a good job which she loves, but the periodic news stories about shortages (so they can keep the faculty busy) don't fool her (or him--AL is a pseudonym).

Today's WSJ reports the same thing is happening to newly minted lawyers, the only difference being they have much larger college debts than librarians usually ring up.

"The majority of law school graduates are suffering from a supply and demand imbalance that's suppressing pay and job growth. The result: Graduates who don't score at the top of their class are struggling to find well-paying jobs to make payments on law school debts that can exceed $100,000. Some are taking contract work reviewing documents for as little as $20 an hour without benefits. And many are blaming their law schools for failing to warn them about the dark side of the job market. . . Schools bright salary figures only report a small percentage--maybe top 25%. Possibly half of the graduates don't respond to the surveys.

Un- or under-employment is essentially a college enrollment problem. They might have been left-wing, tenured-radicals left over from the war protests of the 1970s, but the faculty of our colleges, universities and professional schools have had to fill their programs year after year or lose their funding, privileges or rank--not unlike the managers at Wal-Mart--especially the PhD programs, in order to travel to conferences to give presentations and to have access to publishers for their papers.

William Pannapacker of Hope College suggests that you absolutely avoid any career field that is reporting a shortage. It's a scam, pure and simple. And if you're getting a PhD because you think teaching at the college level might be cool, do something patriotic and become a plumber or go take a job away from an illegal. Better yet: Go to a library and get some real research help on careers. They'll be thrilled to see you.

Aside, non-lawyer stuff: Check out some of these comments on the glut of librarians. Found out it is all Bush's fault--I kid you not. Just read through some of the deranged-Bush-syndrome anonymous comments.