"I thought back then that we might quickly pass peak woke and that rationality would have taken hold again by now," writes Emeritus Professor John Raine in The indoctrination must stop but Labour would double down. "Not so fast, some warned - they were right!"
They were. Raine charts an extension of the "long march through the institutions": a University of Canterbury law bridging course featuring "Race and Ethnicity - Understanding White Supremacy" and "Bodies and Society – Fatphobia". Auckland's Waipapa Taumata Rau Stage 1 course, still "mandatory for accredited programmes". Tikanga MÄori "compulsory in all core LLB courses across New Zealand".
That's what students are taught. Raine also quotes Massey University telling staff, in their professional development plans, that "all staff are expected to implement the [Te Tiriti] principles in their work and practice."
That's the staffroom, and the University of Auckland has just written down how it works there.
A plan to make plans
Its Gender Equity Strategy and Plan 2026–2029 runs to 15 pages. The vision: "A university where gender equity is real, visible, and sustained."
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/assets/about-us/about-the-university/equity-at-the-university/gender-equity/gender-equity-strategy-plan.pdf
Try measuring that. The plan doesn't.
There are 29 deliverables. Deliverable 26: "A Gender Equity Strategy and Plan for 2026 – 2029 is published." The plan delivers itself. Tick.
Fifteen don't start until November 2027, more than halfway through. And the measures?
"Specific evaluation methods and measures will be established as part of the development of each initiative". Later, then.
Into hiring and promotion
Job ads will show "a visible commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion". Decision makers are offered "Implicit Bias, Cultural Navigation and DEI Literacy programmes". Leadership development comes through "career progression initiatives targeted on the basis of gender and gender-ethnicity intersections."
Click images to view
That's what students are taught. Raine also quotes Massey University telling staff, in their professional development plans, that "all staff are expected to implement the [Te Tiriti] principles in their work and practice."
That's the staffroom, and the University of Auckland has just written down how it works there.
A plan to make plans
Its Gender Equity Strategy and Plan 2026–2029 runs to 15 pages. The vision: "A university where gender equity is real, visible, and sustained."
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/assets/about-us/about-the-university/equity-at-the-university/gender-equity/gender-equity-strategy-plan.pdf
Try measuring that. The plan doesn't.
There are 29 deliverables. Deliverable 26: "A Gender Equity Strategy and Plan for 2026 – 2029 is published." The plan delivers itself. Tick.
Fifteen don't start until November 2027, more than halfway through. And the measures?
"Specific evaluation methods and measures will be established as part of the development of each initiative". Later, then.
Into hiring and promotion
Job ads will show "a visible commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion". Decision makers are offered "Implicit Bias, Cultural Navigation and DEI Literacy programmes". Leadership development comes through "career progression initiatives targeted on the basis of gender and gender-ethnicity intersections."
The parent DEI plan promises to "Embed DEI contributions and leadership in the Academic Standards at the next review opportunity". Academics are promoted against those standards. Staff will also be offered "suggested DEI-related goals" for their annual reviews.
The problem being fixed? The university's own pay gap page: "There is no evidence of unequal pay within academic role categories."
The cost nobody knows
What does it cost? Answering an Official Information Act request in March, the university said it "does not have a specific budget for 'equity, diversity and inclusion' as this function is distributed across the University."
It gave one figure: $436,350 this year for the Pro Vice-Chancellor Equity's office. That leaves out the HR diversity team, the equity posts in eight faculties and institutes, and the committees. Meanwhile the DEI plan promises "a needs analysis for additional named DEI roles" in 2027.
Read the sheer number of staff and their titles in the acknowledgements to get a true sense of the cost. Of course, that’s just staff cost. The true cost is the loss of rigour and critical thinking throughout the tertiary sector. Read the list and weep for what was once our higher education system.
The problem being fixed? The university's own pay gap page: "There is no evidence of unequal pay within academic role categories."
The cost nobody knows
What does it cost? Answering an Official Information Act request in March, the university said it "does not have a specific budget for 'equity, diversity and inclusion' as this function is distributed across the University."
It gave one figure: $436,350 this year for the Pro Vice-Chancellor Equity's office. That leaves out the HR diversity team, the equity posts in eight faculties and institutes, and the committees. Meanwhile the DEI plan promises "a needs analysis for additional named DEI roles" in 2027.
Read the sheer number of staff and their titles in the acknowledgements to get a true sense of the cost. Of course, that’s just staff cost. The true cost is the loss of rigour and critical thinking throughout the tertiary sector. Read the list and weep for what was once our higher education system.
Click images to view
Rodney Hide is former ACT Party leader, and Minister in the National-ACT Government from 2008 to 2011. This article was first published HERE
9 comments:
Naturally DEI isn't measurable because if it was, there would need to be positive discrimination for pakeha and males.
To repeat a previous comment I made, being a retired old fart who knows nothing, I saw the rot setting in when they stopped using the term Personel Dept and dreamt up the Human Resources name. All of a sudden the silliness began where HR decided that it and only it was capable of determining what was important. DEI, rainbows and all the other BS appeared - NZ added its own silliness when for good measure in came the Tweety/Tikanga mumbo jumbo ... and so the levels of stupidity came of age. If our coalition makes it back in, hopefully with a better backbone, let's hope it takes a big stick to it all as most I feel are sick to death of it.
Anon 302, all we White males need is meritocracy and we tend to shine. Hence AA/DEI downplay competence and appoint and promote on the basis of race and sex.
There are giant pay gap inequities at NZ universities--caused by giant workload inequities. Somebody teaching 300 students might be paid 50% less than a colleague teaching 100 students.
The Cultural Plague has spread to other professions as well.
For example:-
Forget about just being ACCURATE AND SKILLED AT DISPENSING MEDICINES CORRECTLY.
The PHARMACY COUNCIL demands the following standards as a FIRST priority.
MORE IMPORTANT THAN CORRECT DISPENSING OF PRESCRIPTION medicines !
Here is a list of the ESSENTIAL COMPETENCY STANDARDS FOR ALL PHARMACISTS, according to the Pharmacy Council:-
● being familiar with mana whenua (local hapÅ«/iwi), mÄtÄwaka (kinship group not mana whenua), hapÅ« and iwi in your rohe (district) and their history,
● understanding the importance of kaumÄtua,
● being familiar with te Tiriti o Waitangi and He Whakaputanga o te Rangatiratanga o NÅ« TÄ«reni,
● advocating for giving effect to te Tiriti at all levels,
● understanding the intergenerational impact of historical trauma,
● understanding of the role of structural racism and colonisation and ongoing impacts on MÄori, socioeconomic deprivation, restricted access to the determinants of health,
● being familiar with MÄori health - leaders, history, and contemporary literature,
● being familiar with MÄori aspirations in relation to health,
● developing authentic relationships with MÄori organisations and health providers,
● having a positive collegial relationship with MÄori colleagues in your profession/workplace,
● being proficient in building and maintaining mutually beneficial power-sharing relationships,
● tautoko (support) MÄori leadership,
● prioritising MÄori voices,
● trusting MÄori intelligence,
● be clinically and culturally confident to work with MÄori whÄnau,
● understand one’s own whakapapa (genealogy and connections),
● have a basic/intermediate understanding of te reo MÄori,
● have a basic/intermediate understanding of the tikanga and the application of tapu (sacred) and noa (made ordinary),
● be familiar with MÄori health models and concepts such as Te Pae Mahutonga9 and Te Ara Tika10,
● have a basic/intermediate understanding of marae (community meeting house) protocol,
● be confident to perform waiata tautoko (support song),
● be proficient in whakawhÄnaungatanga (active relationship building), ● integrate tika (correct), pono (truth), aroha and manaakitanga into practice,
● be open-hearted,
● be proficient in strengths-based practice,
● be proficient with equity analysis,
● practice cultural humility,
● critically monitor the effectiveness of own practice with MÄori
Fatphobia should be renamed Diabetes and Cardiovascular Failures Phobia.
Anon 8:03 - By mid 2000’s the departmental name Human Resources was changing to “People and Culture”. Little wonder nothing has improved, huh!?
To Anon at 9:06am:
The number of students one teaches is not necessarily relevant to ‘pay gap inequities at NZ universities’. There’s no problem with some people teaching fewer students. That happens when you compare across subjects and when you compare advanced classes with introductory ones. There are some subjects like maths which have few students. But I’d rather a university hire a mathematician than any number of social scientists, and that holds whether male or female. Do you think people should be paid more for doing more research? What about admin? A better argument is to focus pay on merit and excellence in scholarship, not on workload.
Ah, Anon 11,26AM - Old Fart again.I did not know that but it makes sense. "Culture" ... Now let me see, what do we know about Culture???
A bacterial culture in a petri dish grows through a process called binary fission, multiplying rapidly in four distinct stages.
The Four Phases of Bacterial Growth
• Lag Phase: Bacteria adapt to the new nutrient-rich agar medium; cell numbers stay relatively flat for a few hours.
• Log (Exponential) Phase: Bacteria divide rapidly by binary fission every few minutes or hours, causing the population to double at an exponential rate.
• Stationary Phase: Growth slows and eventually levels off as essential nutrients are used up and waste products build up.
• Death Phase: The number of dying cells overtakes new cell divisions due to severe nutrient depletion and toxicity.
Dead Right, nothing has improved!
Post a Comment
Thank you for joining the discussion. Breaking Views welcomes respectful contributions that enrich the debate. Please ensure your comments are not defamatory, derogatory or disruptive. We appreciate your cooperation.