Affirmative-Action Rhodes Scholarships?

Last updated on: November 20, 2017 at 8:47 am by Jane the Actuary

Affirmative-Action Rhodes Scholarships? 2017-11-20T08:45:04-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

So this was a tweet from Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist:

The 32 new Rhodes Scholars picked this weekend constitute a rebuttal to white nationalists. Sixteen selection committees working independently, based only on merit, chose a record 10 blacks, an Alaskan native, several immigrants, plus a transgender man.

— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) November 19, 2017

Which motivated me to look into the details; here’s the press release with the biographies of this year’s awardees. The biographies themselves do not state the students’ race, of course, but there were 9 recipients who were clearly identifiable as black because of some combination of majors in African-American studies, anti-racist activism, membership/leadership in black/minority student groups, a specific “first” mention (that is, first African-American female to hold the top West Point leadership position) and, in one case, identified immigration of parents. (Strictly speaking, of course, there’s no reason a white student couldn’t study race issues, but, after all, I’d been clued in by Kristof to look for 10 students.) A 10th student had no such markers but a distinctively “black” name, JaVaughn. Six further recipients are of presumed Asian ancestry, in one case with a specific reference to a migration background, and in the remaining instances, presumed such due to last names (Yang, Chang, Singh, and two Chens). One is identified as having a Middle Eastern (Lebanese) migration background, and one more is Inuit. One of them may or may not be slotted into the “Hispanic” bucket, with a Spanish surname (Gonzalez) but no specifically Hispanic markers in his background. Which leaves 14 who are presumed to be white.

(There was, on the other hand, a more or less even mix of men and women, with the bonus transgender activist for good measure.)

This means that 44% of the 32 recipients were white (or 47% if you add in the Lebanese student, who would be “officially” labelled white), and 31% are black. If one discards the identification of individuals as Hispanic or non-Hispanic, the total population of the United States is 72% white, and 13% black. Mathematically, black students are overrepresented.

Now, Kristof considers the fact that there are sixteen separate selection committees as somehow factoring into the fact that these students were chosen “based only on merit,” but it seems likely to contribute to just the opposite effect. If one wanted to have a balanced class, it would be much easier to do so taking an overview of the entire group. It would be very easy for any individual selection committee to decide to elect a “special” candidate and, in total, produce the result of an imbalance. And, after all, each selection committee must judge not just the overall academic excellence of each applicant, deciding who’s smartest, who had the most academic achievements and honors, but also must evaluate other criteria:

literary and scholastic attainments;
energy to use one’s talents to the full;
truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship;
moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings.

And it seems that, to each of the selection committees, the anti-racism activism that was almost uniformly a part of the biographies of the black students, was a key factor. For many of the white students, climate change/environmental activism figured prominently; cases where the students had more “traditional” interests in learning and research were the minority.

This is, by the way, new, so far as I can tell. The Rhodes website provides biographies for recipients back to 2001 (with pictures to eliminate the guesswork about racial identities). For the 2001 selections, 28 of 32 were white, with one black student (interested in foreign policy, no “markers” of race except that one of his activities was singing in the gospel choir) and three Asians. Surprisingly, 25 of 32 were male. The students were high achievers of various sorts, with interests in research, music, space exploration, literature and the theater. There’s an aspiring rabbi. There were plenty who were interested in public policy, but more generically, not linked to protest movements or progressive political causes. There’s a lot of community service — one student, for instance, worked with the disabled, another tutored prisoners.

But judging by this two-year comparison, the selection criteria applied by the committees have become much more tilted in favor of activists. Is this an active, intentional decision by the committees, and a directive to emphasize student activism? Or is it a reflection of student activism being more valued and deemed more valuable in 2017 than traditional forms of volunteer service, such as tutoring poor children, or other sorts of talent-development like musical performance or sports? Or did they rejigger the judging criteria to give more weight to activism in order to advantage minority students active in these groups, in order to (over)correct for their prior small numbers?

And, to be clear, the Rhodes Trust can make any determination they want, and it’s none of my business. Is there a possibility that, taken too far, it would “dilute the brand” of Rhodes Scholar? Presumably, though I would imagine that there is such a pool of talented young people that, even with an emphasis on selecting activists, they’re still not awarding dummies.

Image: “Dining hall at Christ Church. The hall is an important feature of the typical Oxford college, providing a place to both dine and socialise” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford#/media/File:1_christ_church_hall_2012.jpg;By chensiyuan – chensiyuan, GFDL,

Uncategorized

Rhodes Scholarship

social justice activism

universities

Previous Post

November 18, 2017

Grad student Chicken Littles -- sort of right, sort of wrong

Next Post

November 22, 2017 A few comments on the German elections (or, What to talk about tomorrow that's not Trump)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

I went uninvited before the king, risking death, saying 'If I perish, I perish.' Who am I?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Deborah Ruth Vashti Esther