Colleges and universities have been implementing controversial new diversity reforms, including dropping standardized test scores, that eliminate objective criteria in academic admissions or advancement. Now, HR&A Advisors, the TriBeCa-based real estate consultancy, has drawn attention to its LinkedIn posting asking applicants to to remove “all undergraduate and graduate school name references” from their résumés. In order to achieve diversity goals, the company wants applicants to only list the degree and not where it came from. It is equity through obscurity. It is as irrational to eliminate any consideration of an academic institution as it is to rely exclusively on the academic institution.
The company insists that it is adopting this new policy as part of “ongoing work to build a hiring system that is free from bias and based on candidate merit and performance.” However, the identification of these institutions does reflect “merit and performance.”
There can be vast differences in the academic rigor of academic institutions. To only go by the degrees is manifestly illogical. It is akin to saying that you competed on a baseball team but not reference the specific team or league to gauge the level of performance. You could have played for the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp or the New York Yankees.
I certainly agree that schools can perpetuate an elitist culture through such rankings. Moreover, many students cannot afford to go top universities or were faced with economic or social barriers in their elementary, middle, or high school educations.
Additionally, there can be too much importance placed on school affiliation. Despite my personal and intellectual regard for him, I was highly critical of the late Justice Antonin Scalia when he told American University law students that they should not envision Supreme Court clerkships. I have also been a long-standing critic of the hold of Harvard and Yale on the makeup of the Court.
However, the problem of blind elitism is getting better overall. There is not a huge divide between the top ten and the many of the college and universities in this country. Moreover, many top schools have been criticized for standards that devalue or undermine academic excellence.
Nevertheless, there remain significant differences in the quality of education between many schools. That is particularly the case on the graduate level. It is also true that some schools excel in particular areas. For example, with a son about to go to medical school, I have learned that the top medical schools do not track the conventional rankings when it comes to many specialties. In weighing the selection of a doctor in primary care, you would necessarily consider the applicant’s medical school to appraise their training.
Likewise, the ranking of top social working schools have universities like the University of Chicago but also schools that are not ordinarily competitors like Case Western, Brandeis, and Pittsburgh. Students in these areas work extremely hard to gain admission and to train at these top schools. These schools invest heavily in these areas to stay competitive with top faculty and ample resources.
HR&A Advisors obviously is free to adopt any evaluation system that it sees fit for new applicants. Yet, removing the name of the academic institution for applicants denies many applicants a measure of their prior work and achievement. It also denies the employer relevant data or information on the background of an applicant.
All of these applicants achieved the distinction of securing undergraduate or graduate degrees. However, it is willful blindness to suggest that all degrees are the same or that there is no difference in particular degrees between institutions. Many students make considerable financial and familial sacrifice to go to a more rigorous university or a university with a top program. That effort should not be simply discarded by employers.
Finally, the approach of HR&A Advisors appears virtue signaling without real substance on a practical level. If students submit their transcripts or faculty references, the identity of their schools will be obvious. Moreover, in interviews, it will be hard for applicants to discuss their academic training while redacting any reference or hint at the academic institution. For example, if a student studied under a well-known figure in real estate or business studies, is she supposed to avoid mentioning the professor’s name to conceal her educational institution?
It would seem to be more logical to have training or guidelines to address threshold bias. The school affiliation alone should not be a determinative factor in decisions. It can be weighed with a variety of other factors in a holistic consideration of the candidate’s record. Identification of the potential bias can go a long way to reducing its impact on hiring decisions.
The alternative is to treat educational institutions as the equivalent of bleach, products that are largely identical on a chemical level. Is the difference between academic institutions merely the bottle and the label? Even as a critic of the current orthodoxy controlling higher education, I do not believe that all universities are fungible. The solution to bias is not blindness but balance.
Inequality, which triggers the angry discomfort of those on the utopian left, has always been with us and always will. Some are more intelligent than others, some more disciplined, some more athletic–make your own list. The problem is matching the talents of the individual to the demands of the position. And when there are hundreds of applicants for only a few slots, we resort to the use of shortcuts–from IQ tests (now presumably banned), to GPAs, to the identity of the universities attended, to writing samples–in an attempt to narrow the field. At the end of the day, there are almost always more qualified people than there are positions available. All things considered, we should learn all we can about each applicant prior to selection. Pretending that the name of their alma mater doesn’t matter is willful blindness. Logically speaking, why not reach for perfect equality (or is it ‘equity’?) by putting all applicants’ names in a hat and then, with blindfolds on, draw out the names of the winners. What could go wrong?
It’s clear this business places little if any weight on applicants’ qualifications! and only cares if applicants check some boxes! What a crummy way to do business. Why doesn’t it just advertise its openings for people who are “XXX” — whatever the ethnicity, heritage, “color,” race, sex, etc. it is seeking to fulfill its non-business aspirations???
I’m going to state the obvious here and I’m sure to annoy many people with my comment. Where anyone gets a university degree or even the fact that they have a degree from any college or university bears no relationship to the quality or competency of that person as an employee. I know this from 40+ years in the workforce. I have a college degree. And it was a colossal waste of time and money. There wasn’t anything I learned in college that I could not have learned on my own. I have had the misfortune to work with peers with university degrees from Harvard, Cornell, and a few other “Ivy League” institutions that were some of the most incompetent people I’ve ever had the misfortune to work with. One thing that the majority university graduates seem to graduate with is the perception that there is nothing else to learn, an overbearing sense of entitlement, and an embedded disrespect for anyone that does not have a university education. The result of this are university graduates that are ill prepared to work in the real world, that are unable to work productively with employees that lack a college or university degree despite their competence or ability, frequently overlook solutions to problems that do not come from another college/university graduate, and are offended at the thought of re-applying solutions from history for fear of being not being perceived as an “original thinker”.
In my lifetime, two of the most successful business people I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with not only did not have a college or university degree, but were high school dropouts. Both started their own businesses after spending years as employees. And both are comfortably retired right now after selling their businesses.
“However, the identification of these institutions does reflect “merit and performance.” As we all well know, Obama had a Harvard degree, and it wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. He proved a failure on all counts.
“In weighing the selection of a doctor in primary care, you would necessarily consider the applicant’s medical school to appraise their training.”
In some respects but it’s clear the top medical schools are churning out many woke idiots who are extremely dogmatic in adhering to the medical establishment’s narratives. Covid was the eye opening debacle regarding this. The fact that most doctors had NO curiosity about alternative Covid protocols. They thought that turning patients away and telling them to come back when they turned blue and couldn’t breathe was appropriate. They murdered hundreds of thousands and were OK with that. At this point, one has to interview the doctor about his ideology first.
I’m sort of divided on this. Unfortunately with grade inflation, it becomes more of a crap shoot for employers looking to evaluate potential candidates.
On the other hand, there is also far too much emphasis on pushing for an expensive degree that isn’t really necessary to do the job.
I’m an older guy, who started working in the early 1970s without any college at all. Over the years I was largely self taught (as well as occasional independent courses) working my way into medical and industrial equipment design, designing components for one of the Mars landers and satellites, to finally managing large database systems for a global corporation for the next 20 years until my retirement. It was a fascinating journey, but it’s closed now to people who are not in a position for years at college (it’s not JUST the monetary cost).
Perhaps we should not require college degrees for so may positions.
“There can be vast differences in the academic rigor of academic institutions.“ This may be the case in some specific graduate programs, but an undergraduate degree can be earned with the same academic rigor at most colleges and universities. Many of the schools use the same textbooks and reading material. I will concede that some of the Ivies are not up to snuff with their documented grade inflation, pass/fail grading, acceptance of lesser legacies, athletes and affirmative action fills to the point even high achieving Asians are passed over for acceptance these days. Couple this with their misplaced attitude that those achieving admittance deserve to stay, reflected in a nearly 100% retention and graduation rate and refusal to weed out the non performers (how academically rigorous can they really be?), have turned those institutions into $70,000 per year tuition laughing stocks to the point corporations prefer to recruit State school graduates who arrive without the sense of entitlement.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703597204575483730506372718
Enough of this BS.
They run ADs that say: Get a Degree, you’ll have a Higher income over your life, Join the Armed Forces and We’ll pay for it, a College Degree will open Doors for You …. You spend the money and more importantly your Time (the higher price), just so an Slacker can get the job for doing nothing with their lives.
Then the Truth be the Reality, Employers (especially State Government) look for ways to eliminate you from Contention of opportunities. Why you ask? because there’s some Person that does not have a College Degree, maybe they did a 4yr. stent in the Armed Forces / maybe not. But the bottom line is that the Hiring Manager already has a Candidate in mind. Maybe a Buddy, maybe a Current Employees Buddy(s), maybe the Family works elsewhere in the organization and has a legacy there, maybe there’s a current employee that wants to move up a position, maybe the Manager thinks your better qualified than they themselves, Union recommendations, … Yes Nepotism, Cronyism, Unionism, Lives that Matter-ism all leave your application in the eliminated pile. Worse yet is they put you through the interview process because at least Three Candidates are required to be interviewed before a position is filled, so they use you to fill this requirement and waste your time. And HR is just there to keep the Law Suites away. Equal Opportunity Employment (EECO Backed) is a myth. even if you could afford to litigate. HR is a Department with Eyes Wide Shut, any discrepancies are sent to Legal, and above all kept out of the Press.
Prospective Employers don’t want College Educated Applicants, the Degree requirement is an antiquated Gate Keeping System, that just gets in the way of Open Recruitment for Whom & Why they want a specific Person.
If your Educated and looking for a Job and you know that this is how it is already at the Organization,
Don’t waste your time, because those UN-Educated Nepotistic Cronies will Work you to death and eventually break you until your Institutionalized or run you off.
Do yourself a favor, avoid it at all cost, your time is worth more than that headache.
Utah will no longer require a bachelor’s degree for most state jobs
https://www.hrdive.com/news/utah-no-longer-require-bachelors-degree-state-jobs/639437/
At least Utah has come clean about it.
Was it a school that had grades or pass/fail? If a degree is a degree, it won’t matter when one needs a surgical procedure?
Whenever anybody asks me where I got my degree I say “have you ever heard of Harvard University” and when they say yes I say, “well, if you go down Storrow Drive for about 3 miles and you’ll find my school”.
Yay. Now we get to make up any education we want to get the job we’ve applied for
Don’t forget your best Dolezal or you’ll be peeing into the wind.
I was hiring for an important position at my company. The schools of the applicants were wildly different to include prestigious private schools, well-respected state institutions, and then smaller, less-known regional schools, and then, finally, online schools of questionable repute. I was having trouble ranking my candidates with such a broad range of educational instructions represented. The company used to score the applicants and develop a hierarchy before submitting the options to hiring managers. These lists used to be all top-notch people.
I asked my HR Officer who told me we don’t score people anymore; that I was to look at “the whole person”. So I asked for guidance on at least comparing the degrees. Specifically about whether we have any official school ranking criteria that we utilize. I was told: “A degree is a degree” and “If they have a degree, they’re qualified, don’t worry about where they got it.” The HR Officer then elicited the help of our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer who followed-up to chastise me about my “racial bias”. I am a white male; the other participants in the conversation were black females. I was again told not to worry about where the candidates received their degrees. I should consider Phoenix University to be on par with Purdue, or, apparently, Princeton. I learned that it is racist, according to our DEI Officer, to give more weight to degrees from esteemed schools than to LaSalle University of Louisiana; the latter having been shut down for being a “diploma mill” shortly after one of my applicants received their “degree”.
I found it all to be incredulous but in the world we live in now, apparently excellence is to be ignored. America is going to rapidly fall unless we end this gone-too-far inclusion nonsense.
I’m sure all the leftists will think this is a great thing…until they realize they may be losing out on job opportunities to graduates of Trump University.
Diversity, I’m just not into it that much, having Black Boobs don’t mean you’re qualified to fly a Passenger Jet, but we can see it often leads to Happy Endings! Enjoy your Tocos! LOL;)
https://notthebee.com/article/gun-waving-thief-robs-everyone-in-a-restaurant
“DIWORSIFICATION”
_________________
“Distrust diversifications, which usually turn out to be diworseifications.”
– Peter Lynch, One Up Wall Street, 1989
Some law schools are giving extra time on the tests if you have ADD. Medical schools and especially teacher programs are becoming dominated by “social justice” doctrine. Are we going to wind up with MDs at the ER who need a time out because somebody triggered them?
The root cause of all the squawking about “diversity” is a fundamentally defective K-12 system particularly in the Big Blue cities. The can’t even play a decent came of “catch up” using the junior colleges and typically fumble away good vocational opportunities as well. Who is in charge of those systems, and has been for decades? It’s the first thing they took.
Diversity sucs.
Personally I think we are going to be diverse country whether we want it or not. I just don’t jump up and down over it. This is just America.
Diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry), including: racism, sexism, ageism, etc., denies individual dignity, individual conscience, intrinsic value, and normalizes color blocs, color quotas, and affirmative discrimination.
Look up the “Ghost Ship” fire in Oakland. 36 young people killed due to criminal negligence on the part of the Oakland Fire Department, though pay and benefits over $300K. The “civil rights” lawyers and racial setaside politics wrecked the department as these things have most institutions of government taken over by them. The insidious thing is once “which box(es) did you check” dominates the procedures it erodes all standards because people realize they will no longer be judged on their merits (the race theorists say merit is racist too). BTW it’s nearly impossible to sue the government no matter how bad the outcomes, and the “winner” in the aftermath of the fire was the absentee Chinese landlord who cashed in big on an insurance settlement long before the criminal cases against the fools who supervised a warehouse loaded with zoning and code violations were taken to court.
Despite Jacksonville’s assumed lack of skill playing basketball, I hasten to point out that the next president of the United States may well be from Jacksonville.
I suffered through the dark triad of a Harvard grad manager. I will never again have any dealing with anybody who went to Havard. You went to Havard? Get away from me. I highly recommend Harvard require the bivalent covid jab for all students. Why? Because I want to watch all them die over the next five years.
Please just didmiss me as an evil anti-vaxer. I read Turtles All Way Down. I am an evil antivaxer. Exept for Havard students. I want all Harvard studenets to have the latest bivalent Covid boosters. Do you need a ride to a CVC pharmacy for that jab?: I volunteer for anyone going to Harvard.
The institution conferring the degree tells me NOTHING about the quality of the candidate. When I interview candidates, I go by the quality of their post-graduate training (physician), what they have contributed to patient care, and I don’t give a hoot about DEI—it’s all about their INDIVIDUAL merit. I get a helluva lot of kickback from my colleagues, but I focus on three things: 1) can they do the job; 2) do they contribute to patient care; and 3) do their patients get better—and all three are equal questions. I don’t care if they attended medical school at Yale or Westca——— State. A graduate from Harvard with all “C’s” is still called “Doctor”, as is an honors graduate from a graduate from a newly accredited medical school. As for their “Statement of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”—that gets thrown in the trash.
-DrSamHerman’s Family
How do you assess a recent graduate’s individual merit without any knowledge of the rigor of his/her education?
Do you value training at the Mayo Clinic or Mass General or Mount Sinai more than [insert less prestigious hospital]?
If so, how is that any different?
Watch Dr. Death on Netflix to see how irrelevant the more prestigious institutions can be.
It makes sense as most of the formerly prestigious colleges and universities have been trying to make themselves irrelevant (lowering standards, not insisting on excellence, coddling their students, more interested in the narrative than truth, etc.). It is strange how some organizations willingly and voluntarily walk to their own execution.
As Ron White pointed out, “you can’t fix stupid.”
John Wayne use to say, life is tough, it’s even tougher when you’re stupid.
Thinking about this a bit, I am not at all concerned in general. Businesses can make good or bad decisions and they will thrive or fail based on those decisions. This is no different. There is nothing that prevents the prospective applicant from revealing their degree pedigree.