Ethnic and Gender diversity in FIRST

[Otaku]

Honestly, I think the people that are wrong in this situation are the people who want to "diversify" the team just because it has mostly white males. Big deal. Race and Gender should have no place in demographics, and giving preferential treatment for minorities is racist and unfair. A person should be admitted to the team based on seniority, skill, or just a random drawing from a hat or something.

Now, I can understand WHY people would give preferential treatment towards females/non-whites, but it's a nonsense reason. It's as if people are trying to compensate for former inequalities. Rather than compensating, they should completely level the playing field. For instance, if a white male needs 100pts to pass a test, everybody, regardless of gender or race should need 100pts to pass the same test. A person is no less or no more based on their gender or the color of their skin. This should be especially true in FIRST.

-Otaku

[Kelly]

Your 30 person limit seems ridiculous. You should certainly be allowed to replace people who drop out. How hard have you tried to talk your school district out of it? Have they given you any reasons why? Perhaps you should propose a "travel team" that is limited to 30 people and allow anyone who wants to help build the robot. That way, the travel team could be determined after the build season and after you have determined everyone's commitment levels.
To actually answer your question, encouraging diversity on your team seems like a reasonable goal. Doing so by admitting students who have already proven to be unreliable is not a good way to do so. These particular students won't make your team more diverse if they don't show up.

[AdamHeard]

In this case, there really isn't that much you can do. A school district probably isn't going to bend on an issue like that.

Also, I can't entirely tell from what you said, but only 4 students were given the spots "unfairly". It's probably just better to hold your tongue and let it be; If his supervisor is making this decision, it's not worth risking support for the team over 4 kids.

Just worry about the other 26, and try to keep your teams politics off of CD (I'm sure all teams have it anyway), it really doesn't help, and mainly has potential to make your own team look bad.

EDIT: argh... I'm tired, I got sidetracked in my post and left this out from after the first paragraph (thx for reminding me Dave);

The only idea I have would be to get any student who was denied access complain. Even then, I doubt the school will budge. Both high schools I attended made similar rulings on unrelated (as in, NOT our robotics team) clubs.

[sanddrag]

To me it sounds like its edging up on reverse discrimination. If "student A" feels his spot on the team has been taken by "student B" who is less deserving/qualified, on the sole basis of race, "student A" should have his/her parents contact the school.

I believe it is improper to offer certain types of people more/greater/special opportunities over others for the reason of there being less of them in the general population.

[chris31]

Originally Posted by Otaku

Honestly, I think the people that are wrong in this situation are the people who want to "diversify" the team just because it has mostly white males. Big deal. Race and Gender should have no place in demographics, and giving preferential treatment for minorities is racist and unfair. A person should be admitted to the team based on seniority, skill, or just a random drawing from a hat or something.

Now, I can understand WHY people would give preferential treatment towards females/non-whites, but it's a nonsense reason. It's as if people are trying to compensate for former inequalities. Rather than compensating, they should completely level the playing field. For instance, if a white male needs 100pts to pass a test, everybody, regardless of gender or race should need 100pts to pass the same test. A person is no less or no more based on their gender or the color of their skin. This should be especially true in FIRST.

-Otaku

I agree with you 100%. I feel that it should be based on who are the best 30 people for that team and not who do you need to pick to have a "diversified" team. If you have significantly more than 30 people applying maybe you could look at starting a new team.

[JaneYoung]

Diversity is something the 'real world' is working with in the 2000's, trying to find that balance.

Last week, I was at a staff retreat and a part of it had to do with creating a diversity mission statement for a made up corporation, non-profit, or business of our choice and then marketing it as such.

I've been attending workshops and meetings regarding the topic of diversity for a while now. Many universities have diversity statements.
Innovation, mutual respect, communication, future leadership are just a few examples of the goal/mission. Reason being - historically, there have been excluded populations in regard to recruitment, retention, and talent in many fields of education.

It sounds like your team is having to work within the constraints of the school's expectations/mission. I don't know if you have done this but you might think about talking to the team regarding developing a mission statement and a diversity statement. If you have a handbook with your rules/guidelines/recruitment policy stated clearly in it - then you can address change if you feel it is needed with the powers that be. The more organized/prepared your team is with a business plan and one of organization, the better you can represent it. For example, I have sat on interview committees. The candidates haven't always fit into all the boxes that one should ideally be able to check off regarding diversity, experience, skill sets. Because of the background/research that we've done, the homework we've done backing up the ability to justify why a candidate would be a good fit, we have been able to hire excellent candidates that we otherwise might have missed out on.

If someone outside the team is setting the restrictions such as team size, etc. then it is up to the team to best handle the restrictions and guidelines by being as professional and organized as possible with a well developed organizational/business plan. When that is in place, then the team can develop a plan of action to present - dealing with the problems that arise such as empty spots due to members dropping out.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Many school boards (and other governing bodies) will issue directives like this because of past experiances with others that would not invite students / teammembers fairly (not nessicarily {SP?} the robotics team). Sometimes, in an effort to do the right thing (diversity), rules are put in place that, when implemented, do more harm than good.

Discrimination of any type is wrong. I would ask to meet with this supivisor, and ask him for the reasoning and motivation behind the rule. I can almost bet you that the issue is far more complicated than just your teams roster.

In the end, you will have to accept their decisions. However, making an effort to find the reasoning behind their decisions (tactfully) will show that you care about what is happening and you are reasonable in your actions.