Comment by prof-dr-ir | Hacker News Reader

Comment by prof-dr-ir | Hacker News Reader

Almost all the academics I know already share the desire for more diversity, are aware of pitfalls like unconscious bias, and are completely ready to hire people from more diverse background... only to find that the overwhelming majority of the applicants are run-of-the-mill (say, "white male") candidates. :(

One could force up those candidates that would add to a department's diversity, even if there is no indication of prior adverse circumstances. This is however considered undesirable - it might not be fair and also be bad for the candidate's reputation in the long run.

Academic hiring can be great fun but in the end it is already a completely ill-defined optimization problem. I do not see how a CDO could be a valuable addition to the process.

> the overwhelming majority of the applicants are run-of-the-mill (say, "white male")

See, people keep saying this, but when I was in school (in the U.S.) - especially when I was in grad school in the mid 00's - I was the lone white male in a sea of Indians. My teachers were Indian. The TA's were Indian. My classmates were Indian. There was one class where there were two Americans, including me - and the other one was born to Indian immigrants.

And today, all my co-workers are Indian.

Sounds like the CDO might have misread their job description. :)

I should not have said "white male", in particular because in my field there are also a significant number of (excellent) Chinese and Indian researchers. Although we should not forget about the many other underrepresented groups, the most visible diversity issue for us is the gender asymmetry.

I happen to be a white male from the US and during my PhD I was my Advisor's only native English speaker. Also, at most of my jobs, I've been either the only or one of two native English speakers.

While I don't have the numbers, it would not surprise me that for at least CS/Software and likely other many other professions white male is by no means the run-of-the-mill applicant.

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