Management professor Robin Hayes recently published an article in The Atlantic in response to the cover of and article in Yale Alumni Magazine. The cover of the magazine states that Yale “seeks smart students from poor families. They’re out there – but hard to find.” Hayes, an alumna of Yale where she was the first person to earn a joint doctorate in African American Studies and Political Science, and a self-proclaimed “native of East Flatbush, Brooklyn and the descendant of a housekeeper, doorman, drug addict, and prisoner” has much to say on the subject. Her article, Why Ivy League Schools Are So Bad at Economic Diversity offers three reasons why elite universities and colleges continually fail to have a more economically diverse student body. She cites 1) the fantasy of achievement, 2) the rarefication of the “low-income” family, and 3) the myth that “the best” is the best for everybody.
Hayes is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies, International Affairs, Nonprofit Management and Urban Policy and the founder of Progressive Pupil, a nonprofit based out of The New School that addresses the causes and consequences of racial discrimination through documentary filmmaking and social media. She is also director of the forthcoming film Black and Cuba.
