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The Merit system in academia is unjust because it rewards productive individuals, professors argue
Campus Reform ^ | 09/09/2021 | Kate Anderson

Posted on 09/09/2021 9:35:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind

Professors from the University of Arizona and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs are arguing that "success and merit" are "barriers" to the equity agenda.

“Admitting that the normative definitions of success and merit are in and of themselves barriers to achieving the goals of justice, diversity, equity and inclusion is necessary but not sufficient to create change,” professors Beth Mitchneck and Jessi L. Smith recently wrote for Inside Higher Education.

Mitchneck and Smith attributed those definitions to a "narrow definition of merit limited to a neoliberal view of the university." Specifically, they express concern that universities receive funding and recognition based on the individual performances of professors’ own work such as peer reviewed journals and studies.

Campus Reform reached out to Smith, asking what should be done to alter the merit system. Smith did not provide any alternatives.

The professors are not the only scholars in academia to critique the merit system. Last month, University of Illinois professor Eunmi Mun said that merit-based pay does not take "nonperformance-related factors" into account.

Speaking with Campus Reform, Mun said, "[M]erit-based pay systems may increase the gender gap in bonus pay, which is more sensitive to individual performance than base pay."

Both Mitchneck and Smith do recognize examples of universities attempting to add a ‘mission of DEI’ to their programs and recognition system. However, they argue that those efforts are insufficient.

“While these examples stand out for the good, that is, in many ways, the problem," the professors write.

"While we can point to the few institutions that are trying to change merit structures, many others seem resistant to change."

Campus Reform reached out to Beth Mitchneck for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: academia; education; fairness; merit; meritsystem; wboopi
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1 posted on 09/09/2021 9:35:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Well... DUH.

It makes no sense to award somebody with a medical doctorate degree who’s NOT SUCCESSFUL.

It makes no sense to award somebody with a degree in physics who’s NOT SUCCESSFUL.

This is extending participation trophies to their illogical conclusions and these professors should be immediately sacked for their shoddy research.

The point is not to give a gold star to everyone - the point is to figure out why certain peoples of certain ethnic backgrounds can’t (or won’t) seem to excel.


2 posted on 09/09/2021 9:39:44 PM PDT by Skywise
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To: SeekAndFind

Dear University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Please remit a Bachelor’s of Science in Interspace Mining to the below signatory. In accordance with your opinion that merit and success in mastering a degree subject is immaterial I’m taking the liberty of assuming attendance is also immaterial. I look forward to receiving a parchment from your institution via return post. Regards.


3 posted on 09/09/2021 9:41:37 PM PDT by blueplum ("...this moment is your moment: it belongs to you... " President Donald J. Trump, Jan 20, 2017) )
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To: SeekAndFind

Merit system in academia to be replaced with the welfare model. Based on it’s proven success.


4 posted on 09/09/2021 9:47:43 PM PDT by robel
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To: SeekAndFind
the normative definitions of success and merit are in and of themselves barriers to achieving the goals of justice, diversity, equity and inclusion

No they're not. The problem is that you're stupid and ignorant and using wrong definitions for the second group of words. Use accurate definitions and then there is no conflict with the first two concepts.

5 posted on 09/09/2021 9:52:29 PM PDT by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!And test better)
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To: SeekAndFind

Bookmark


6 posted on 09/09/2021 10:03:52 PM PDT by aquila48 (Do not let them make you care! Guilting you is how they control you. )
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To: SeekAndFind

Try replacing ‘equality’ with ‘excellence’ and EVERYBODY’s boat rides up!


7 posted on 09/09/2021 10:05:17 PM PDT by Oscar in Batangas (An Honors Graduate from the Don Rickles School of Personal Verbal Intercourse)
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To: SeekAndFind

Why merit is “neoliberal” I can’t understand. The old communist states valued academic achievement too. As did the pre-capitalist era medieval universities. Or maybe everything that is not new and “woke” is neoliberal, even if its neither neo nor liberal.


8 posted on 09/09/2021 10:10:25 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: Skywise

And everybody in his/her/it’s class gets an A?

“Just because I have Bull Shit (BS), More Shit (MS) and Piled Higher and Deeper (PhD) after my name does not mean my opinions are anymore valid than yours”

~ (The Late) Jake Kimmey (Professor of Philosophy University of North Texas)


9 posted on 09/09/2021 10:27:51 PM PDT by Fai Mao (I don't think we have enough telephone poles.)
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To: Oscar in Batangas

The universal benefit of ‘excellence’ — agreed

The Left is a self-loathing, miserable lot. They’re the sniveling, snot-nosed losers that have somehow managed to gain control. I blame Youth Soccer.


10 posted on 09/09/2021 10:32:41 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: Fai Mao

+1


11 posted on 09/09/2021 10:33:31 PM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: SeekAndFind

Libtards - Dragging people down to the lowest common denominator since 1965!


12 posted on 09/09/2021 10:49:46 PM PDT by Iron Munro (SCOTUS 1939 US v Miller: Weapons to arm "well-regulated militia" protected under 2nd Amend)
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To: Skywise

"Too Weaks Ago I Cooden Eben Spell Braim Sturgeon - Now I Are Won!"


13 posted on 09/09/2021 10:57:25 PM PDT by Iron Munro (SCOTUS 1939 US v Miller: Weapons to arm "well-regulated militia" protected under 2nd Amend)
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To: Still Thinking

I just want the liberals that support this be required to go to a doctor who graduated because of justice, diversity, equity and inclusion not merit.


14 posted on 09/10/2021 3:51:00 AM PDT by Paperpusher
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To: SeekAndFind

I couldn’t make this up - but they can.


15 posted on 09/10/2021 4:25:55 AM PDT by Moltke (Reasoning with a liberal is like watering a rock in the hope to grow a building.)
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To: Paperpusher

“I just want the liberals that support this be required to go to a doctor who graduated because of justice, diversity, equity and inclusion not merit.”

Or drive over a bridge designed by an equity-focused engineering firm and built by a diversity-first construction company.


16 posted on 09/10/2021 6:16:37 AM PDT by Clioman
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To: Still Thinking

Just what I want-—a surgeon who cannot pass 6th grade with merit to be doing my medical procedures.


17 posted on 09/10/2021 11:15:06 AM PDT by ridesthemiles ( )
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To: Gene Eric

This is also the legacy of Participation Trophies.....


18 posted on 09/10/2021 11:16:09 AM PDT by ridesthemiles ( )
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To: ridesthemiles

Exactly.


19 posted on 09/10/2021 11:20:37 AM PDT by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
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To: SeekAndFind
the normative definitions of success and merit are in and of themselves barriers to achieving the goals of justice, diversity, equity and inclusion

To the Left "justice, diversity, equity and inclusion" are incompatible with objective measurement of competence.

20 posted on 09/10/2021 11:21:58 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (Everything that’s been achieved in the history of mankind has been achieved by not being safe.)
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