Chancellor Birgeneau:

The second major initiative we have, and this is actually the first public announcement of this, is that at Berkeley we are creating a new leadership position which will be at the highest level other than chancellor and it will be a vice chancellor for equity and inclusion. Right after Labor Day, we’ll be putting together a committee, which I will chair, to begin a national search to fill this position…

This position is relatively new in the United States. I want to emphasize that this is very different from what is at most universities… [where] there’s a single person who’s special assistant, say, to the president or the chancellor, and that this person will have a large organization under them and will act with authority on these matters.

One has to wonder what sort of “matters” the “vice chancellor for equity and inclusion” will “act with authority on.” It all sounds like a waste of time and money, accomplishing nothing but feeding the egos of those who thrive on feel-good positions of power.

The not-so-hidden objective is obviously getting around Proposition 209, the state’s affirmative action ban. That has been Birgeneau’s plan all along. Everything else about sexual orientation, religion, disabilities, etc. is just a smokescreen. It’s about 209.

And even if it’s about more than 209, I still don’t see the point. Birgeneau states:

“to be part of this community, they’re not required to homogenize and assimilate into basically one set of identical people with a single set of views.”

I completely agree, this is what makes us human. So keep it at that. Why set up these wasteful bureaucracies when the only requirement for people to be free is to just let them be? Personally, I think that this “large organization” that can “act with authority” will only serve to make things worse, pitting minority against minority.

Here’s hoping we’ll at least get some good blog fodder from the new V.C.E.I.