Since the arrival of Christmas break and J-Term, the screaming campus hordes of November have largely gone the way of summer soldiers and sunshine patriots. The dropping temperatures transform outdoor protests into events suitable only for those of the most iron resolve. Still, there are developments ongoing behind the scenes. The Scrapbook has obtained, for instance, a copy of the list of demands, or rather, the “Final Report” of the University of California-Irvine’s task force on “ensuring a positive climate for the campus’s African-American community.”
The race-busters’ report includes the usual laundry list of minor grievances, along with demands to hire black “program coordinators” from the previous year’s graduating class. The most pressing demand is for the creation of a political education curriculum “developed and overseen” by Dr. Frank B. Wilderson III. Being somewhat cynical, The Scrapbook supposes Dr. Wilderson may have had a role in crafting the document.
But wait—there’s more. The task force also wants to rename a floor in one of the university’s buildings the “Academic Excellence-Black Scholars” floor. And to create a dedicated housing assistant for the “African-American Studies Theme House.” Is a theme house like a theme park? The Scrapbook doesn’t know, nor does it understand why it would be “untenable” for the head of a such a house to simultaneously head the “Humanities House.” Would that mean one less new job created?
But it doesn’t end there. The students “DEMAND” (the report periodically lapses into all-caps) that the administration create a “retention center” for black students. The center should supply free “printing, scantrons, blue books, course textbooks, writing materials, computers, projectors, whiteboards,” and so forth. Apparently the task force believes black students are unable to acquire their own school supplies.
Taxpayers and other students, it is well to remember, would be on the hook for the higher costs that would come from meeting all such demands. The Scrapbook wonders if micro-aggressions are just another excuse for macrosubsidies.
