Sunday, May 15, 2005

EEOE/AAE acronyms and the APA

The American Philosophical Association puts out a periodical that lists jobs for philosophers. It is unimaginatively called Jobs for Philosophers. On the front cover it has definitions of abbreviations. Among the nine acronyms it defines are Asst. Prof. and Assoc Prof., whose meanings should be quite obvious to anyone at the stage in their lives whtere they are applying for a job in the academic world. (The periodical is in English and mosly has jobs in English-speaking countries, so it is not for people who are unfamiliar with our abbreviations.) It then defines AOC and AOS and CV which are useful to know, though should not be surprising.

What baffles me are the final four though: AA/EOE, EO/AAE, EO/AA, and EEOE/AAE. These stand for, respectively: Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer, Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, and Equal Employment Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action Employer.

Can anyone tell me what the difference between these four are? And what is the deal with the last one? I don't even think it makes sense.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Affirmative action requires preferential treatment while equal opportunity requires "equal" treatment. For AA, I'd imagine that in real life this translates into a black person being hired because he or she is black and underrepresented in the field while under equal opportunity, the black-ness would be irrelevant and his or her skills would be considered alongside those of any other applicants and if he or she lacked certain skills because of poor educational opportunities and such, that person might be hired and receive on the job training. As far as I understand it, they are essentially the same. That last acronynm is hilarious and a testament to how ridiculous and convoluted (and meaningless!) these things have become.