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Comment by DataDive

12 hours ago

I don't know about vacuuming good students ... you probably have no idea what kind of students get hired in the USA nowadays.

The recruiting at a typical research university has an woke dimension to it - and I am reporting my personal experience, not hearsay:

Out of five scores each student was graded on, three were basically pure wokism like: describe how you overcame a difficult prejudice in life, or talk about how your presence will contribute to an inclusive environment ... only one was probing actual skills ...

PS: I have nothing against immigration - I am an immigrant myself ... a former immigrant student at that ...

I am against the selection process that ignores talented, skilled people and replaces them with mediocre people with some (probably made-up) nice woke story.

If you can't understand the utility of having welcoming and creative/tenacious people involved in your science (which your questions listed are asking about) then you are not nearly the expert in qualifications you think you are.

  • You misunderstood my reply completely.

    I am saying we are not selecting for those people.

    When we hire at the university, we ignore creative, tenacious people and instead select mediocre people with a nice woke story that meets the woke requirements.

    • >When we hire at the university, we ignore creative, tenacious people and instead select mediocre people with a nice woke story that meets the woke requirements.

      Which university? Name some "creative, tenacious people" who were rejected by said university.

      There's nothing in your HN profile to out you to anyone, so have at it. If you are unwilling to do so, I call bullshit on your anecdote. Or as they say, "pix, or it didn't happen."

    • I would encourage you to reflect on what you think "woke" is, and why things that you think are woke are mutually exclusive from the skills and qualities you value.

      "Woke" is a nonsense scare phrase at this point, when what you're actually taking issue with is valuing people's lived experiences and backgrounds as a part of what they contribute. Understanding where people come from and how that colors their world view is simply a good practice when doing anything, but especially when you're trying to do science/academia. Too many similar minds in a room will never produce what one with a diverse group will. Diversity is good science, and valuing it is not "woke".

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I'm sure you can name this university, then. So we can compare the actual questions versus your weasel wordy, "basically" "like".