Representatives from the Harvard University Council voted to set aside $1,000 for gender-oriented trainings that will take place inside more than a dozen residence halls for freshmen students.
Act 36F-30, “Act to Pilot Gender 101 Trainings in the First-Year Entryways,” passed with all but one vote in favor of the legislation.
Gender 101 Trainings will be a part of the first-year experience at Harvard, in order to help set the tone for the next four years of a student’s undergraduate career.
“Recent incidents on Harvard’s campus have made the need for discussions around gender identity increasingly clear,” the act explains.
According to the Harvard Crimson, the pilot trainings will be run by the Harvard College Women’s Center during study breaks.
Malcolm Reid, a freshman at Harvard, does not think the trainings will be effective.
“If they’re afraid of students saying something outside of the liberal norm they should actually expose students to differing opinions, not indoctrinate them into acceptable dogma … In the real world you can’t throw a fit and cry murder because someone didn’t call you ‘ze’ instead of ‘he,’” Reid told the Washington Examiner. “I know many UC members; some are good people who mean well, but I don’t think this would be the best plan, plain and simple.”
“Colleges face a truly difficult choice in our polarized political state. Are they going to be safe spaces or debate spaces? Will their students be the best and brightest, or will they pump out mindless drones?” Reid asked.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the authors of the legislation, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Adam is a junior studying journalism at Mississippi State University.
