[teejers1]

My Translation:  Stanford's attempt at a "meaningful response" to the DoF ("Death of Floyd").

Maybe, but I don't think so.  First off, I don't think it would have made a meaningful difference.  Student athletes made up 12% of the undergraduate student population; I think the cuts would have brought that down to like 9%.  So we are only talking about 3% of the undergraduate population, and it's not like 100% of the students in the cut sports were white or that they would be replaced 100% by minorities.  Thus, you are talking about a difference of maybe 1% in the minority population, probably less than that.  Secondly, I think the "re-balancing" is broader than a re-balancing of the racial make-up of the class.  I think it spoke to the administration's view of the relative priorities for Stanford.  MTL and PD simply don't care as much about Stanford being good at sports than did the two John's.  Lastly, the announcement of the cuts happened on July 8, 2020, a mere six weeks after George Floyd was killed.  It probably took that long just to get the language on the press release approved.  The decision was probably made months before Floyd was killed, the proposal probably way before COVID-19, and the first discussions probably happened a year or two into the Tressider-Levign/Drell tenure (Drell ascended to Provost in 2017), so I am guessing the imagined conversation probably happened in 2018.

BC

We can agree to disagree.  And whether you think the proposal was an idea prior to DoF or not, I think the timing can easily support the notion that the Floyd homicide was what spurred Stanford to act to reduce number of well-heeled suburban Whites and Asians participating in these country club-ish sports in favor of less-well-heeled "underrepresented" communities.  (Though I agree it wouldn't be a 1:1 replacement of groups - there would be some variations from "the purpose of the reshuffle").

And a 200+ kid reshuffle is not insignificant.  Certainly not for those affected (or those who would have been affected).

[teejers1]

My Translation:  Stanford's attempt at a "meaningful response" to the DoF ("Death of Floyd").

Maybe, but I don't think so.  First off, I don't think it would have made a meaningful difference.  Student athletes made up 12% of the undergraduate student population; I think the cuts would have brought that down to like 9%.  So we are only talking about 3% of the undergraduate population, and it's not like 100% of the students in the cut sports were white or that they would be replaced 100% by minorities.  Thus, you are talking about a difference of maybe 1% in the minority population, probably less than that.  Secondly, I think the "re-balancing" is broader than a re-balancing of the racial make-up of the class.  I think it spoke to the administration's view of the relative priorities for Stanford.  MTL and PD simply don't care as much about Stanford being good at sports than did the two John's.  Lastly, the announcement of the cuts happened on July 8, 2020, a mere six weeks after George Floyd was killed.  It probably took that long just to get the language on the press release approved.  The decision was probably made months before Floyd was killed, the proposal probably way before COVID-19, and the first discussions probably happened a year or two into the Tressider-Levign/Drell tenure (Drell ascended to Provost in 2017), so I am guessing the imagined conversation probably happened in 2018.

BC

We can agree to disagree.  And whether you think the proposal was an idea prior to DoF or not, I think the timing can easily support the notion that the Floyd homicide was what spurred Stanford to act to reduce number of well-heeled suburban Whites and Asians participating in these country club-ish sports in favor of less-well-heeled "underrepresented" communities.  (Though I agree it wouldn't be a 1:1 replacement of groups - there would be some variations from "the purpose of the reshuffle").

And a 200+ kid reshuffle is not insignificant.  Certainly not for those affected (or those who would have been affected).