Regarding the politics, it's not surprising in the least. There was some controversy earlier this month surrounding a significant change in the admissions proc

Regarding the politics, it's not surprising in the least. There was some controversy earlier this month surrounding a significant change in the admissions process at the top public high school in San Francisco[1]. Historically, this school based their admissions process on academic performance; a student's standardized tests scores and GPA were the criteria used to determine whether they were accepted into the school. As a result, the largest demographic were Asian American students. So affirmative action was put in place, so non-Asians who performed worse academically got admitted over Asians who performed better. Even with this race-based discriminatory policy, about half of the student body consisted of Chinese-Americans and the percentage continued to increase. Now, the SFUSD school board has voted to change the admissions process to a lottery. They have effectively made it clear that academic achievement has no merit. They are prioritizing racial identity over education, and even have the audacity to claim that anyone who opposes this decision is racist[2]. So, yes, politics has indeed gotten very extreme in academia. 1: https://www.sfchronicle.com/education/article/Lowell-High-School-will-use-lottery-admission-15662977.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/education/article/Lowell-High-Sc... 2: https://www.sfchronicle.com/education/article/Chaos-and-a-hot-mic-moment-S-F-school-board-15645962.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/education/article/Chaos-and-a-ho...