Yale Daily News

As a Yale alum, I am very proud of the authors of this News' View. You have hit the nail on the head. Levin's credibility rests upon his decision. There really is no excuse this time around. The sad truth is there never has been an excuse.

At Yale, since the President is the sole voice in choosing Provosts and has the last say in the decanal choice, the buck stops at his own front door. No smokes and mirrors now; the stark truth is that the keys to diversify Yale's administration rest in Levins hands. Yale is not behind, the President has been.

How on earth can Yale be progressive if it adheres to the archaic model of recruitment solely from within and at the discretion of one individual. When will Yale emerge from the dark ages and cast a wide net for national or global talent? There Yale would find a deep pool of diverse candidates for all its searches. When will Yale move to a model where search committees are empowered to play a larger role in such key decisions?

President Levin, people are watching. Will your words ring true...or were they merely words?

Are you serious? To give someone seeking a top administrator position preference because of their race or gender is not fair in general and not fair to our students. This candidate-search should be diversity blind: hire the best person, regardless of race and gender. I would be very happy to see a female member of a minority group in the position - but only if she is the most qualified candidate. This article is written as if the administration should favor minority status over qualifications.

@Y09: I agree wholeheartedly. When an administration goes out on a "mission" to diversify its numbers, qualifications WILL be overlooked. My personal top 2 for this job DO happen to fall under the diversification category, but I truly believe them to be the most qualified. If they were not, however, their gender and race alone would NOT be a reason to catapult them into the standings.

It's well and good to desire a diverse group running our school, but not "just because" and certainly not in lieu of other less diverse candidates who may be more qualified. Let's be careful.

Yes.

Tokenism is is a beautiful thing.

This is rubbish. It is an insult to the highly-qualified candidates who happen to be women or minorities.

In all honesty, I'll be cheering for Menocal, or Urry. I know them both personally, and not only are they on the ball, but very much so in touch with student life. Yale would be very satisfied if either of them had the position.

The position should go to a minority. There are many white women in top positions in this country because they are able to better identify with the majority white culture. Racial minorities however are vastly underrepresented in powerful positions.

I think that y09 and y11 have hit the nail on the head. Let the best candidate prevail. Forget this obsession with diversity for diversity's sake. Perhaps we will have a minority female as dean; however let it be because of real quals and not because the person is a minority female.

What happened to equality and judgement based on ability and not gender or race ?