In last week’s issue of the Cynic, there was an editorial mourning the departure of Professor Kaufman from the political science department, and bemoaning the extent to which “political correctness” has taken hold at UVM, supposedly inhibiting diversity and freedom of speech.

Losing an ultra-conservative white male, who worked closely with Nixon while he was in office, from the UVM staff is in no way hurting “diversity”. I agree that UVM should strive to create “true diversity” (as was stated in last week’s editorial), however hiring another conservative white male is not going to achieve this.

UVM is a glaringly white campus with a glaringly white staff. To achieve a greater degree of diversity we need to hire more minority and international professors, who will really give a more true perspective on the state of the world. Recently UVM significantly cut a section of the budget that was set aside as incentive for African American professors to take positions here. This is disgusting.

How can we begin to achieve true diversity if we are cutting the funding for minority professors to come teach in cold, windy, white Burlington? UVM needs more Major Jacksons and Mustapha Dioufs, not more Kaufmans.

As far as political correctness goes, it does not inhibit freedom of speech.

A perfect example of this is the professional conservative bigot, Dinesh D’Souza, who spoke in Ira Allen Chapel on Monday the 19th. Everything that D’Souza represents, claiming that blacks are “pathological” and that slavery was validated, is certainly anything but PC.

Yet, he was allowed to speak; no one impeded on his freedom of expression. Instead the Left, and everyone else with a conscious, protested him and what he represented before he spoke and challenged his views with questions at the end of his speech.

Political correctness is not something that should be stopped at UVM, in fact it should be strengthened, so that our tuition doesn’t go to bringing bigots to campus on speaking tours, but instead goes to creating a more diverse and socially conscious staff.

If you agree with this, and you want to fight to end bigotry, racism and conservatism on this campus come to ISO meetings every Wednesday night at 7:30pm in Lafayette 100. Because, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” [Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963 (41 years ago today!!!!)]