An Ohio university is changing the way it selects recipients of its Inclusive Excellence Award after a conservative professor won.
“We are working to revise the nomination and review process to be sure we take a comprehensive approach in selecting the recipients to ensure their bodies of work represent our diversity and inclusion values,” said University of Toledo vice president of diversity and inclusion, Willie McKether, in a statement announcing the award.
The change in how the honor is awarded comes after law professor Lee Strang won the award after receiving an “overwhelming number of faculty nominations.”
Strang was nominated in part because he “enjoys and respects a good healthy debate” in his classroom, one nominator wrote. The nominator made note of Strang’s “conservative point of view,” which is “a minority in academia and a benefit to legal debate.”
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“Professor Strang always welcomes students to present and defend their perspectives while respectfully challenging them to consider points of view contrary to their starting point,” one nominator wrote. “I believe the academy at its best is a place where truth claims and viewpoints can contend with one another based on their own merits and scholars from all life experiences have the opportunity to wrestle with the arguments of others as well as their own assumptions.”
“As much as any demographic measure of diversity, the diversity of thought and perspective is at the very heart of our identity as an academic institution,” wrote another.
McKether said it was for those reasons that Strang would receive the award but that the process would change going forward.
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“The intent of this award is to recognize those at UToledo who best represent our diversity and inclusion values and the feedback we’ve received on the nomination and review process is important as we continue to advance this new recognition into the future,” McKether said. “As an institution we are committed to promoting a campus environment where every member of the UToledo community feels included and respected. I will continue to do my best to acknowledge and facilitate respectful discussions that enable us all to grow and do better.”
The University of Toledo did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
