Officials in Virginia are requesting to review diversity, equity, and inclusion-related coursework at two universities over concerns class mandates are being used to advance left-wing “groupthink.”
Virginia Education Secretary Aimee Guidera’s office has requested syllabuses from George Mason University and Virginia Commonwealth University, both of which are planning DEI-related course mandates for students.
“The administration has heard concerns from members of the Board of Visitors, parents, and students across the Commonwealth regarding core curriculum mandates that are a thinly veiled attempt to incorporate the progressive left’s groupthink on Virginia’s students,” Christian Martinez, a spokesman for Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), told Inside Higher Ed in a statement. “Virginia’s public institutions should be teaching our students how to think, not what to think and not advancing ideological conformity.”
GMU’s “Just Societies” offering would require all students entering the school in fall 2024 or later to take two courses with that designation, mandating classes that appear to be based in large part on the corporate left-wing movement to tout their “active commitments to diversity and inclusivity,” according to the course’s website.
Some courses that received the “Just Societies” designation include “Scientific Racism and Human Variation” and “Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies.”
However, GMU’s description of diversity includes differing political opinions, which is typically a point of contention at universities between conservatives, who emphasize ideological diversity, and liberals, who emphasize race and gender diversity.
“The specific learning outcomes were designed in the context of Mason’s understanding of diversity – diversity of origin, identity, circumstance, and thought,” the university said in its description of the set of courses. “This includes ability, age, family status, geographic region of origin, military/veteran status, nationality, neurodiversity, political beliefs, race/ethnicity, religious beliefs, sexual and gender identity, socioeconomic status, and more.”
Virginia Commonwealth University’s “Racial Literacy” mandate, set for fall 2024, has been years in the making. Its development started in 2020 when students and faculty began demanding racialized course offerings in the wake of the George Floyd riots.
The potential course offerings would involve applying a racial lens to topics such as media, activism, healthcare, psychology, education, and analytics.
Kristin Reed, a VCU assistant professor in the focused inquiry program, pushed for the racially-focused academic requirement but was critical last week of the Youngkin administration’s scrutiny, according to WRIC, calling it an “unprecedented intervention” and touting the “expertise” of the academics that staff VCU.
“We have faculty at VCU who are specialists in racial justice history, the sociology of race and racism, the psychology of race and racism … and to my knowledge, our governor does not have expertise [or] knowledge in these areas,” she said. “So it’s very hard to assess what he might be looking for, other than political [reasons].”
“This really is a climate of fear and abuse,” Reed continued. “And that is a climate where our students don’t have access to an equitable — or just [any] education. They can’t have that if their educators are afraid every day.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Youngkin was elected in large part on his promise to reform the left-wing ideology that had taken root in K-12 education, including the critical race theory that had made its way into elementary school curriculums. DEI in higher education has also been a focus of many Republican-led states, including in Texas and Florida where bans have taken effect.
As governor of Virginia, Youngkin has been responsible for appointing multiple members of boards of visitors, which are primary governing bodies of higher education institutions, at each of the commonwealth’s public universities. Many of his appointees have been openly anti-DEI, and Youngkin has been able to remake many of the majorities, or at least come close, for several schools.
