BAKE SALES, GOOD AND BAD. Kindly be advised that Rosa Luxemburg nostalgia Women's History Month is soon to arrive on campuses nationwide, and it is likely that the bake sales with cookies sold to men for $1 and to women for 70 cents are likely to accompany it. These bake sales are unlikely to attract the kind of attention the affirmative action bake sales tend to attract from the administration, despite their cavalier abuse of everything we've learned in fifty years of empirical investigation into sex and gender differences in earnings.

The latest anti-affirmative action bake sale, at the University of Colorado (motto: we treat our football recruits like studs), has attracted the usual caterwauling, from the usual suspects, with extended commentary at discriminations, including a suggestion from The Yin Blog, who offers,

We realize that you disagree with affirmative action. However, this bake sale, with the differential pricing based on race and gender, while clever, makes a fundamentally specious analogy. The buyers of your baked goods do not interact with other buyers, so even if you attract a greater number of minority buyers, there is no increased cross-racial interaction; at least, not within the context of a simple sale. In the educational context, on the other hand, our experience with teaching has led us to realize that increased racial diversity improves the education process for everyone involved. Thus, affirmative action in the educational process has a pedagogical purpose that is absent in your bake sale.

Let's take this suggestion seriously. Substitute the Rosa Luxemburg Women's History bake sale.

We realize that you disagree with wage differentials. However, this bake sale, with the differential pricing based on sex, while clever, makes a fundamentally specious analogy. The buyers of your baked goods do not contract with other sellers, so even if you attract a greater number of female buyers, there is no increased workplace interaction, at least, not within the context of a simple sale. In the workplace context, on the other hand, our experience with hiring and promotion has led us to realize that increased attachment to the labor force improves the pay packets for everyone involved. Thus, differing pay packets in the workplace have an efficiency purpose that is absent in your bake sale.

On the other hand, King at SCSU Scholars may have the right idea: some people lack a life. University officials appear to be behaving like adults with respect both to the bake sale and the football recruiting inquiries, hence there are no new nominees for the deck of cards to be found in Boulder.