Is diversity simply a box-checking exercise, or does it hold a deeper significance in academia? Today we're joined by Azim Shariff, Ph.D, a distinguished professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, to explore the complex landscape of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in higher education. In this conversation, John Tomasi and Azim delve deep into the multifaceted approach to DEI, discussing the pressing need to rethink and clarify the rationale behind diversity in faculty hiring and beyond.

Azim provides a fresh perspective on managing and harnessing diversity's paradox of fostering innovation and coordination challenges. Whether it's the impact of role models on educational outcomes or the intricate balance between meritocracy and social justice motives, this episode promises to unfold the nuanced dynamics of DEI efforts within academic institutions.

Get ready to challenge your understanding of diversity in academia as we navigate through the meritocratic, social justice, and instrumental values driving DEI initiatives.

In This Episode:

• Rethinking DEI in academia
• Balancing truth-seeking and social justice
• The challenges of interdisciplinary research diversity
• How role models impact education outcomes
• Clarifying the motives behind faculty diversity

Follow Azim on X here: https://twitter.com/azimshariff

About Azim:

Azim Shariff is a Professor and Canada 150 Research Chair at the University of British Columbia, where he directs the Centre for Applied Moral Psychology. His research on morality, religion, politics, and technology regularly receives global media coverage and has appeared in top academic journals such as Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. He has written about this work for The New York Times and Scientific American and has spoken at TED, the Aspen Ideas Festival, and the World Science Festival in New York. He is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He teaches a free Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on The Science of Religion for the public through edX. Professor Shariff earned his doctorate from UBC in 2010 and returned as a faculty member in 2018.

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Discover how Ivy League schools might be shortchanging taxpayers to the tune of billions! Today, we're peeling back the layers of an issue that hits our wallets and our values: the billion-dollar taxpayer support of Ivy League institutions.

Host John Tomasi is joined by Adam Andrzejewski, founder and CEO of "Open the Books," an advocate for transparency in public finances. Adam brings to light a staggering reality: Over a recent five-year period, Ivy League schools amassed fortunes at the taxpayers' expense—a whopping $45 billion tab that's got some scratching their heads and policy-makers wielding the legislative pen.

Adam is not afraid to discuss how taxpayers are burdened with the cost of what seems more like a federal contractor than an educator. We discuss questions of accountability, such as whether universities should receive federal money without oversight and whether state-level standards boards could improve the management of public funds.

Join us on Heterodox Out Loud as we explore the billion-dollar taxpayer tab for Ivy League schools and its implications for the future of higher education, government oversight, and our society's appreciation for knowledge.

In This Episode:

• Elite schools' heavy reliance on taxpayer funds
• Proposed tax reforms for excessive university endowments
• The debate over universities' federal funding accountability
• Tension in bipartisan university public policy
• The Rising costs and transparency in higher education

Follow Adam on X here: https://x.com/everydimeonline

Follow OpenTheBooks on X here: https:/x.com/open_the_books

About Adam:

Adam Andrzejewski is the CEO/founder of OpenTheBooks.com. Before dedicating his life to public service, Adam co-founded HomePages Directories, a $20 million publishing company (1997-2007). His works have been featured on the BBC, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, C-SPAN, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, FOX News, CNN, National Public Radio (NPR), Forbes, Newsweek, and many other national media.

Adam founded the transparency website, www.openthebooks.com, and launched it by posting the salaries and pensions of all 1 million Illinois public employees (2011). Today, OpenTheBooks.com is the largest private repository of U.S. public-sector spending. Mission: post "every dime, online, in real time." In 2022, OpenTheBooks.com captured nearly all public expenditures in the country, including nearly all disclosed federal government spending; 50 of 50 state checkbooks; and 25 million public employee salary and pension records from 50,000 public bodies across America.

In their oversight report, published in March 2017, titled Ivy League, Inc., OpenTheBooks uncovered $41 billion taxpayer subsidies, tax-breaks and federal payments into the Ivy League colleges (FY2010–2015).

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What really happened in 1945? Explore how students grapple with historical events and figures to understand their distinctness and uniqueness. In this episode of Heterodox Out Loud, host John Tomasi interviews Professor Mark Carnes of Barnard College. Professor Carnes talks about his innovative approach to teaching history, which he calls "reacting to the past." He explains how this method challenges traditional teaching by immersing students in historical contexts through Live-Action Role-Playing (LARP).

Professor Carnes shares the components of this approach, its impact on students' engagement, the complexity of character roles, and the unique insights it generates. By making history come alive in a way that traditional teaching methods may not achieve, "reacting to the past" provides a unique and engaging way to learn about the past.

In This Episode:

• Teaching history through role-playing games
• Engaging students in historical complexities
• Adoption of live-action role-playing games
• Connecting with historical figures through gameplay
• The transformative power of immersive learning

Find out more about The Reacting Consortium here: https://reactingconsortium.org/

Find out more about Mark here: https://barnard.edu/profiles/mark-c-carnes

About Mark Carnes:

Mark Carnes received his B.A. from Harvard and Ph.D. from Columbia. For the first half of his career, he was a very conventional historian, General Editor of the 17-million-word American National Biography (Oxford), and author or editor of dozens of books on American history. But around the turn of the century, he pioneered the Reacting to the Past program, where students played complex games set in the past, their roles informed by important texts. He has co-authored six games in the Reacting series, published by the University of North Carolina Press, and is the author of Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College (Harvard, 2014). He teaches at Barnard College, Columbia University.

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