I see your point, although the lack of ideological diversity is much, much more skewed towards conservative thinking being suppressed. Hillsdale is an outlier. Smith is close to the norm.
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Yes it’s a very different experience from the US and traditionally very few grads would do Masters as they are already ‘specialised’.
Back to diversity - you can see that this means they have traditionally had a very narrow band off one ‘type’ of student however.
And to be fair, a couple medium-sized institutions are unlikely to be able to be all things to all people.
So if you are committed to diversity of backgrounds, training, thinking, and so on in hiring, the idea there will be “one-stop shopping” where you can get all the different people you are looking for at any one institution (or two similar) may simply be impractical. And that seems fine to me.
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We consider the politics of the UK to generally be quite ‘center’ if not centre right compared to much of Europe. The US in comparison to the UK is considered hard right conservative and that would include most democrats not just republicans.
Climate change for example in the UK is not a political issue. It’s scientific mainstream thought supported by both parties. How much to spend and how is still a political football but no politician denies it.
Free healthcare is considered a universal right by over 92% of the population, also supported by both parties.
Regular church going is a small fraction of what is found in the US and the Anglican church is very very different from most US churches. Creationists are probably outnumbered by flat earthers in the UK.
From a US perspective we are pinko Commies 
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Astute - Yes I agree.
Compared to Western Europe yes, the UK is still considered somewhat to the right (not sure why to be honest). Not compared to Central and Eastern Europe which is very much right of the center. I mention this because it is related to the diversity of ideas within the continent…
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Actually, I think people generally agree that diversity of all kinds is a positive, whether it is SES, race, nationality, geography, politics/ideology/thought, etc… Most people realize that having interactions with people different than you broadens your horizons and allows you to see different approaches and solutions to various issues. The contention comes up as to what is “diverse enough” – does it have to mirror some demographic cross section, or is there a critical mass for each subgroup at a level far below that. At the same time, if “diverse enough” is a relatively low hurdle, the thumb placed on the scale can be very light (or none at all), but if we are shooting for diversity to match a broad category of a population, the thumb will likely have to be heavier.
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We are going through a technological revolution that will be more impactful to our societies then even the Industrial revolution so kids need to develop adaptive intelligence.
Specialising as an expert in just one field is now a more risky strategy rather than the safest strategy. Hence for me, Harvard over Cambridge especially for an English girl.
Having to adapt to US culture is part of the benefit, not just because the US is the leading global culture but simply because it is not British culture. Having to adapt to diverse viewpoints and work within a diverse student body is of major benefit to my D - selfishly it’s about helping her for the decades ahead not about some social crusade to make the world a better place - sure I could wrap it like that for virtue signalling - but that’s the truth.
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I do not agree that this is a general consensus, given how much anti-DEI (D for diversity) and anti-immigration (i.e. nationality / geography of origin) politics there is these days. In terms of diversity of politics/ideology/thought, it is now more common to think of one’s political opponents as enemies or “vermin” in a (currently mostly non-violent) civil war, rather than people you merely disagree on some issues with.
@Hanna once mentioned something about student preferences on the matter: Is a college's racial/ethnic composition an unstated overriding factor for many people? - #18 by Hanna
Of course, colleges looking at their marketing motivations presumably consider how their diversity or lack thereof affects how attractive or not they are to various subsets of potential students.
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Not that simple really. Most people who are against forced DEI policies actually welcome diversity of all kinds. The strongest opposition to illegal immigration is actually in Hispanic and Black American communities.
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I live in a deep red state in a deep red area. Friends, colleagues, acquaintances including die hard Trump supporters, seem to value and appreciate different backgrounds and perspectives. What they object to vehemently is their perceived heavy hand of government favoring certain groups over others. As far as immigration is concerned, many if not most of my Hispanic friends have major problems with illegal immigration. They, their parents or grandparents followed the rules and they don’t like it when others can so easily circumvent them.
Yes, there are overt racists but the majority of people I know are decent people at the personal level. When we moved here from the Bay Area, 2 families brought over fresh baked goods to welcome us. When any of us in our corner of the neighborhood go on vacation, we look out for their houses/packages. We check in on the elderly residents from time to time. This had not been my experience in my “fancy” neighborhood on the Peninsula.
Most of my HS, college and law school friends live on either coast. I agree that a big problem these days is people quickly putting others into either “my people” or “Others” boxes. The misperceptions of how coastal liberals view fly over conservatives and vice versa is mutual. When you actually put people together and don’t talk hot button issues (abortion, guns, LGBTQ rights), they seem to get along and have a lot in common in my experience.
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I think that there exists a depth-breadth balance that should be considered. It used to be the case that one one hand you would have the pure play liberal arts major and on the other the pure play science and engineering majors. But, now there exists options where science and engineering majors include a healthy liberal arts component. So, I would say that the good news is that you can specialize quite deeply while benefiting in the broader sense.
Attending a university with a diverse student body is relatively easy to do. Exposing yourself to “diverse viewpoints” requires active work on the part of the student. One of the criticisms of many US universities is that they have fostered a dominant culture and viewpoint - hardly the ideal of viewpoint and thought diversity.
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Reminder that this isn’t the political forum. Please use the PF if you’d like to discuss politics and diversity.
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Private companies like Tractor Supply and Target tried to expand their customer base and found significant backlash because of bigotry against the targeted demographic. No one was forcing them to do DEI marketing in the first place, but there was significant opposition to such.
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Sometimes, hot buttons cannot be avoided. When the nice lady introduces her wife, that can be triggering to those who oppose LGBTQ rights, for example.
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Not really. What is triggering, however, is when the schools make it a point to teach young children that transgenderism is normal and even to be celebrated, for example.
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What are schools supposed to say about that subject, particularly if it happens that a parent or teacher or staff member who is transgender shows up?
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Is gayness or christian-ness or tallness or mathiness or girlyness or blackness or autisticness or outgoingness any more or less “normal” than “transgenderism”?
People just ARE who they are in many categories.
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Just as a technical matter, many human variations are not the most common, but they are what would usually be called normal variations. So, like, having red hair or being left-handed or so on is not the most common variation across the species, but the way people usually talk those are still considered among the normal variations. But then sometimes that is community based. Like, maybe red hair where I live is considered a normal variation, but it might not be seen that way in some other community.
With that understanding in mind, a lot of “normality” debates can be seen as what should count as a normal variation or not. Like, is purple/pink hair (or streaks or highlights or such) normal? Well, it is not a natural variation, but it is something I have seen many times by now in my communities. So at this point I am tempted to call it a fairly normal variation for my communities, although I also don’t think a lot depends on that issue.
And speaking of which, in the end, I don’t think most secular US colleges really want to get too caught up in that way of framing these issues. They DO like being welcoming to all sorts of different people. They DO believe all sorts of different people can be positive contributors to their college communities. But welcoming and valuing those individuals does not necessarily require categorizing them as “normal”–indeed, there is some power in the message that is perfectly fine NOT to be “normal”. In that sense, “diversity” as practiced by US colleges may indeed not require valuing “normality”, it may well in some ways value NOT being “normal” (not in every way, but some ways).
So in my experience, many secular US colleges may have a very public stance that a wide variety of people are welcome and valued in their communities, and that is simply a true statement by such colleges. What that implies about “normality” however is typically going to depend on exactly what you mean by that concept, and it may not be an issue on which those colleges feel a definitive answer is necessary.
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Or realizing and accepting that you often get non-“normal” characteristics along with explicitly desired characteristics – and that some people with both may be choosing colleges based on whether their non-“normal” characteristics are accepted at the colleges.
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