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[–]WickedWitchOfTheWest 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

DEI vs. USD: The woke blob swallows the University of San Diego.

Many conservative parents looking for moderately traditional college options for their children seek schools that are under the protective cover of a church. The University of San Diego (USD), a Catholic school with a law school not unfriendly to conservatives, may once have been such a safe haven, but no longer. Under President James Harris, the school has undergone a kind of hostile takeover by the forces of wokeness. The story of what happened to USD provides a cautionary tale to parents, donors, and students trying to outrun the spread of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI), as detailed in a new report entitled “The Woke Takeover at University of San Diego.”

Until the George Floyd-BLM riots, USD had standard-fare diversity classes and diversity committees. Then, in Fall 2020, Harris and Provost Gail Baker established an Anti-Racism Task Force (ARTF), which established four sub-committees: Anti-Racism Training; Policies related to Acts of Intolerance and Acts of Hate; Faculty Recruitment, Hiring & Retention; and Student Recruitment and Retention. Its 28-page report, containing 41 recommendations, was released in December 2020.

[...]

Every element of the student experience is to be oriented toward DEI indoctrination. Test scores will no longer be consulted for admissions, since they discriminate among students. Instead, grade point averages and answers to personal insight questions determine admissions. Before accepted students even get to campus, their orientation in DEI begins with “Torero Circles,” an online training for incoming students. The first week of Circles concerns “diversity, inclusion and community” through a course designed around “key concepts” like “identity, bias, power, privilege, and oppression, to understand the benefits of a diverse community, and to develop skills related to ally behavior, self-care, and creating inclusive spaces.” Later weeks concern academic success.

Students get another dose DEI in August after their arrival on campus, where they celebrate “Diversity, Inclusion, Social Justice & Changemaking Day.” Students engage in dialogue about the urgent challenges of institutional racism in our day. Student orientation, captured in part in this video, pushes white students to acknowledge their unearned privilege as it points to a “white racial identity.”

Students are directed to “living-learning communities” (LLC) for required classes after orientation. LLCs point students to leftist community activism with courses like “Introduction to Changemaking,” “Writing as a Form of Advocacy,” and “Introduction to Ethnic Studies.” USD’s general education requirements have doubled the number of explicitly-dedicated DEI credits needed for graduation under Harris.