Shortchangers: A Story of the Near Future

Political correctness abounds in this funny debut, which skewers affirmative action, multiculturalism, ethnic, religious and sexual quotas for students and teachers, book censorship and anti-Americanism. Jonas Don Trelawny, physics professor and dean, presides over a Midwestern state university that is struggling to create the ideal politically correct campus. More than 180 diverse groups receive university funding, and teachers are promoted based on the amount of quotas they can fill. Each student must wear a necklace of color-coded beads, a system that Jonas himself has devised as a way for them to know--and to avoid offending--each other. One young man's beads indicate he is a ""20-year-old Chinese-American senior, bisexual, lower middle class, Confucian, and majoring in electrical engineering."" It is this student who introduces Jonas to the Liput Liberation League, a group protesting the injustices suffered by vertically challenged people. The Liputs present Jonas with a list of demands, including the institution of an anthropology course in pygmy culture, and a change in the name of the campus newspaper from The Big Picture to one without any reference to size. Jonas's grappling with the Liputs' demands and increasing hostility is at the heart of this novel, but his seduction by a young student leaves him baffled by his own lapsed morality and broken marriage vows. The generous glimpse Silver offers into the strange university world--a society unto itself--is pleasing all-around, especially the creation of a culture as diverse as the food, including Burmese fried ants, served at the Ancestral Diversity Cuisine Festival. Shortchangers is a lighthearted, memorable satire that takes on some serious subjects. (Apr.)