Why is the National Science Foundation Still Wasting Millions on Diversity? Daniel Greenfield

http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/267391/why-national-science-foundation-still-wasting-daniel-greenfield

It’s 2017. And this sort of thing should not be happening anymore.

Millions from the National Science Foundation are being funneled into left-wing social justice work. It’s a criminal waste of money and resources. All this from the folks who claim to love science.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) gave out more than three million dollars to fight “implicit bias,” “microaggressions,” and “lack of diversity” in STEM fields this July.

Texas A&M, meanwhile, received $1,999,000 to fund efforts to “dramatically improve the diversity, inclusion, and quality” of students and faculty in the Department of Aerospace Engineering.

Because that’s what we need in the field. Not talent. Not merit. Diversity.

The NSF also gave out another social-justice themed grant on July 5, this time awarding the University of New Hampshire $999,752 to explore strategies for preventing “bias incidents” perpetrated against minorities in science, building upon prior research funded by the NSF, which found that “bias incidents in the academic workplace create a negative climate for STEM women faculty and for other faculty with minority status.”

Over the next five years, with the support of the NSF grant, UNH will collaborate with researchers from Ohio State University, the University of Virginia, and the University of New Hampshire to create a comprehensive “bias awareness guide and intervention tool.”

So almost a million dollars in taxpayer money will be funneled into campus intimidation.

According to the NSF website…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 “to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…” NSF is vital because we support basic research and people to create knowledge that transforms the future.

As we can see above.

The director and all Board members serve six year terms. Each of them, as well as the NSF deputy director, is appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. At present, NSF has a total workforce of about 2,100 at its Arlington, VA, headquarters, including approximately 1,400 career employees, 200 scientists from research institutions on temporary duty, 450 contract workers and the staff of the NSB office and the Office of the Inspector General.

How many of those 1,400 career employees are remotely needed for what the NSF does?

The current director of the NSF is France A. Córdova. Her original background was anthropology (a huge alarm bell) before she got a physics degree. Obama appointed her to the Smithsonian and then the NSF. Her father is Mexican which was widely talked up in the puff pieces about her. Once in power, she began pushing diversity aggressively thereby perverting the NSF’s scientific mission.

A “Dear Colleague” letter from Cordova dated 22 February sets a 10-year goal of “transforming [science and engineering] so that it is fully and widely inclusive.”

The question is why is she still at the NSF?

Donald Trump’s administration has asked the current director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), France Córdova, to stay on as head of the powerful fundamental research agency. Francis Collins will also remain the head of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Great.

And so millions in looted taxpayer money go to finance the politically correct abuses of the left.

Here’s Cordoba telling Congress about the NSF’s cuts.

Córdova described how NSF followed White House orders to slice the agency’s budget to levels last seen a decade ago in current dollars—and 15 years ago if inflation is factored in. The goal, she said, was to preserve “core” research programs while also throttling back on programs that had expanded rapidly in recent years.

“There isn’t another agency that just allows researchers to submit their own curiosity-driven research ideas,” she explained. “We call that the core, and to me it means principal investigator–driven research. And we wanted to be sure that there was still an agency on the planet that would continue to fund curiosity-driven, fundamental research.”

You can see some examples of that “research” above.

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