Word: token
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...sacrifice of a few randomly assigned students intended to bring diversity is a new form of tokenism. The randomly assigned students do not benefit from losing their choice and being placed in an environment in which they may be less comfortable, and the upperclassmen will not suddenly transcend their perceptions of house and self because of an influx of 40 token, unexpected sophomores. These students are being used to pacify the University's embarrassment over house stereotypes, which block Harvard's dream of perfect diversity...
...same token, the dean said she was responding to student complaints. Minority students on campus took the poster to be offensive, an indication that perhaps many on campus would like to return to the 1950s when, in the words of jazz great Gil Scott-Heron, the movies were in black and white and so was everything else. The distrust is great. But we are reluctant to acknowledge that the distrust is legitimate. Somewhere along the line we have lost patience with the demand for sensitivity, and, as a result, we have become immune to those who feel injured...
Given her confrontational past, Harris has been uncharacteristically circumspect in victory. Says she: "I have been elected bishop of the church, not a symbol or a token." Her emphasis will be on the job that she has been called to do, Harris insists, not on her precedent-shattering election. However, two years ago, Harris observed with typically caustic humor that any woman who joined the Episcopal hierarchy would need "a high tolerance for indecisiveness, an inordinate amount of patience with unimaginative leadership . . . and an appetite for ambiguity." In the coming months, such qualities will surely be tested in Harris herself...
...additional thirty-three tenure-tracked professors. The rest of the University's affirmative action initiatives will be directed toward attracting temporary and visiting scholars, unable to make a lasting contribution to Harvard life for minority students, and "staff" and "administration" members, janitors and assistants to assistant administrators whose token presence will satisfy the University's goals without addressing the problems raised by minority students and faculty members across the campus...
...said Richard Rosser, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, in explaining the Cavazos selection earlier this year. "It's quite obvious that was a very important factor in the decision." Other higher education officials took the same condescending view towards Cavazos, viewing him as a "token" member of the Cabinet and as a lightweight who would meekly preside over the Education Department during the twilight of Reagan's term...