Harvey Mudd went out of its way to bring in considerably more female and diversity students. Guess what happened? Harvey Mudd eight years ag...

Harvey Mudd went out of its way to bring in considerably more female and diversity students. Guess what happened?

Harvey Mudd eight years ago revised its core curriculum, cutting it back from four semesters of courses to three and allowing for more elective classes. It was a measure that faculty and administrators believed would reduce student workload and stresses, and they were frustrated to learn it was not successful after many months of planning, Klawe said.

Some faculty members, meanwhile, told the interviewers that students were not prepared for their classes, and that they’d observed deterioration in the quality of students accepted to Harvey Mudd over the years. They described students as wed to their phones and not committed to the sciences....

While leadership there has recruited more women — to the point where they comprise nearly 50 percent of the student body — gains in the numbers of Hispanic and black students were sluggish until recent years, Klawe said. As a college recognized for its sciences, Harvey Mudd competes with institutions like Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both with higher profiles.

With this diversity comes growing pains, and practices that benefited what was the traditional Harvey Mudd student still linger, but are being identified.

It's rather impressive how people keep managing to be surprised by the inevitable.

Some faculty spent Monday afternoon in a training learning more about sensitivity toward minority groups and women.

Right. Because science is all about sensitivity.