NAS President, Peter Wood, Speaks at NWC

It was truly refreshing to have Peter Wood, President of the National Association of Scholars (of which I have been a member for several years), speak at Northwestern College, Saint Paul, Minnesota as a guest lecturer in the Faith & Thought Lecture Series  this past Tuesday evening, November 9, 2010 in Nazareth Chapel.

Peter Wood, formerly Provost of King's College (NYC), is author of highly acclaimed Diversity: The Invention of a Concept, which was reflected well in his lecture.

His lecture was titled, "What's Wrong with Diversity? The Reckless Career of a Mistaken Ideal." This is the issue captured and expressed so well in his first book and which is an issue frequently addressed by Peter Wood and the NAS staff with here.

Here is just a token quote from his lecture:

Since I am on sabbatical I have virtually no opportunity to get any sense of how Peter Wood's lecture was received. My only sense derives from two sessions I attended, the Tuesday evening lecture and a Wednesday morning Q&A session. Both sessions should have been attended far better. Among those who were present, I sensed a mixed response. I was glad to see that the campus diversiphiles or diversicrats were present for both sessions. Of course, their work is implicitly under assault by virtually everything that Peter Wood had to say, so, it would be surprising if they had any response other than rather critical. They posed questions, and their questions, though kindly expressed, reflected their commitments, as one might expect.

Diversity authorizes double standards in admissions and hiring, breeds a campus culture of hypocrisy, mismatches students to educational opportunities, fosters ethnic resentments, elevates group identity over individual achievement, and trivializes the curriculum. Of course, those punishments were something that had to be accepted in the spirit of atoning for the original sin of racism.

You may want to read Peter Wood's recent article, "From Diversity to Sustainability: How Campus Ideology is Born."