Laurence Thomas: What Good Am I

question 27

True/False

Laurence Thomas: What Good Am I?
In "What Good Am I?" Laurence Thomas addresses the debate over affirmative action by asking why, given that knowledge is colorblind, the race and gender of professors should matter. What, in other words, is the benefit of a diverse professoriate? One answer is that a diverse professoriate provides role models for minority and female students. Thomas, however, rejects this answer because it is often presented in a way that suggests minority and female faculty have little to teach students from outside historically marginalized groups apart from how not to be racist and/or sexist. But even if this so-called role-model argument were innocent of such a suggestion, Thomas claims many would still object to affirmative action on the alleged grounds that affirmative action appointments are, by definition, not the best qualified applicants. After all, so the objection goes, if a job candidate were the most qualified applicant, he or she would not need any form of preferential treatment. According to Thomas, however, this objection completely ignores the existence the entrenched biases, which can persist even alongside a sincere belief in equality. In a morally perfect world free of these kinds of biases, women and minorities of superior qualifications would be hired on the basis of their merits. But that is not the kind of world we live in according to Thomas.
For Thomas, the best way to understand the benefit of a diverse faculty is in terms of intellectual affirmation, trust, and gratitude. Teaching, on Thomas's view, involves more than the mere transmission of knowledge. Crucially, it also involves providing intellectual affirmation, which is impossible in the absence of trust between student and teacher. Given that sexism and racism can make it difficult for female and minority students to develop this kind of trust with white male professors, a diverse faculty helps remove one obstacle standing in the way of some students achieving intellectual affirmation. Moreover, the mere presence of a diverse faculty can give female and minority students hope that the university is an environment where intellectual affirmation is possible for them. Finally, Thomas argues that intellectual affirmation creates gratitude, which when felt by white male students toward female and minority professors can help undermine academic "ole boy" networks that have served sexist and racist ends in the past.
-Thomas believes that the ethnic and gender composition of faculty members should be proportional to the ethnic and gender composition of society.

Understand the sequential order and interdependence of different types of budgets within the master budgeting process.

Recognize the role and preparation of sales, production, and cash budgets in the budgeting process.

Understand the importance and method of estimating sales and cash receipts for budgeting purposes.

Grasp the concept of budget revision methods including continuous and rolling budgets.

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Definitions:

Work Life

The balance and interaction between one’s professional and personal life.

Performance

The act of carrying out a task or the execution of actions, often measured against preset standards to assess efficiency or skill.

Subcultures

Groups within a larger culture that have their own distinct values, norms, and practices.

Countercultures

Subcultures within an organization or society that significantly differ from or oppose the dominant culture's values and norms.