Córdova’s commentary ‘glossed over’ issues

Publication Date: 11/02/2009

It is rare that I have the opportunity to be exposed to as much hypocrisy as when I read Oct. 26’s guest editorial by Purdue President France Córdova.

Dr. Córdova’s contention that women have made great strides in the sciences since then is true. What she glosses over is that Purdue has not striven to make that happen. Our enrollment of women overall is 42 percent, compared to 50 percent (and more) at neighboring public universities like Michigan and Illinois. Little has changed since Córdova climbed into Purdue’s cockpit.

Córdova tells us that Ms. Earhart “predicted there would come a day when people would be judged by aptitude, and society would stop blocking off certain things as suitable to men and suitable to women.” Ms. Earhart’s College of Technology is still 85 percent male in enrollment.

Córdova’s Purdue remains one of those places where those blocks remain, and are still being reinforced.  While Purdue takes every opportunity to connect itself with Ms. Earhart, one has to ask if Ms. Earhart would do likewise.

Amelia Earhart spent two years at Purdue. Does that sound like a happy, valued employee? And this was in 1935, during the depths of the Depression when jobs were almost impossible to come by. It seems likely that Ms. Earhart took the Purdue job because nothing else was available, and jumped at the very first opportunity she had to leave.

Mike Sloothaak

Staff