Diversity Thursday

the college shows the way

It has been a busy month in DivThu world. You see some thing that make it all seem hopeless, but then you realize that for 80% or more of the decade and a half or so that we’ve been documenting this cultural Marxist movement … it was at best a fighting retreat with little good news.

However, in 2023, so much good is getting traction you have to take a moment and think a bit … if not hope … this is how we win.

You can see it. Finally in the military arena that in many ways is much deeper in the grasp of the diversity industry than anywhere else, the pushback is getting traction;

The battle will be rough, but only for the weak and backwards thinking. Let not your heart be troubled … let’s to a lightening round of progress (remember to follow the links), and then move on with the Plan of the Day;

“For generations, our military was a meritocracy,” they write.

It was one of the most — possibly the most — diverse and inclusive institutions in America precisely because it recruited and promoted on merit to a greater degree than almost any other institution in America.

But, they caution, in the name of DEI, it’s moving its emphasis from merit to things like skin color and national origins, in a system where people are “labeled as ‘oppressed’ or ‘oppressors,’ and pitted against each other.”

….

…Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) said it best: “They suggest to the American people the military has a problem with diversity and extremism,” he said. “In truth, the military is the greatest civil rights program in the history of the world.”

For generations, colorblindness and meritocracy have helped make the U.S. military the strongest in the world. But now our military is being bogged down and distracted by the Left’s woke agenda.

One recent report on the Navy compiled for members of Congress observed that “non-combat curricula consume Navy resources, clog inboxes, create administrative quagmires, and monopolize precious training time.” Additionally, a recent poll conducted by the Heritage Foundation found that 65% of active-duty personnel are concerned about growing politicization in the military, including the woke training programs and equity-minded reduced physical fitness standards.

At the state level, right thinking governors are at last going after the cancer they can reach - the officially sanctioned sectarianism being pushed at the taxpayer’s expense by an army of otherwise unemployable diversity industry nomenklatura;

Don’t look now, but the Peach State may soon join Florida and Texas in eliminating the curse of diversity, equity, and inclusion from colleges and universities.

The chancellor of Georgia’s public universities, Sonny Perdue, is locked in a battle with state lawmakers after the state Senate cut $66 million from the higher education system’s fiscal 2024 budget. But Lt. Gov. Burt Jones has offered him a way out: Figure out what you’re spending on DEI, and get back to us.

Perdue, chancellor of the University System of Georgia, with its 26 colleges and universities, should pay heed and catalog how many university officials are pushing DEI in Georgia. The obvious next step would be to eliminate this wasteful and damaging endeavor.

We’ve done the math at the Heritage Foundation, and we can tell Perdue that it’s quite a lot. Rather than raise tuition for Georgia’s students, as the system’s Board of Regents may have to do because of the budget cut, he could simply eliminate these costly positions.

…

The University of Houston system announced they will be removing diversity, equity, and inclusion statements from their hiring practices on Friday.

According to Houston Public Media, which is licensed by the University of Houston, UH Chancellor Renu Khator send out an email to the campus community saying they will no longer use DEI statements or factors in their hiring or promotion processes.

…

Continuing an effort to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from Florida's higher-education system, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a measure aimed at prohibiting colleges and universities from spending money on "DEI" programs.

The governor also signed a separate bill that will prevent colleges and universities from requiring "political loyalty" tests for students and employees as a condition of admission or employment.

University system Chancellor Ray Rodrigues joined DeSantis for a bill-signing event at New College of Florida - the small liberal-arts school in Sarasota that has become a focus of the push by DeSantis and other state leaders to remake higher education.

"In reality, what this concept of DEI has been is an attempt to impose orthodoxy on the university. And not even necessarily in the classroom, but through the administrative apparatus of the university itself," DeSantis said.

Under the DEI-related bill (SB 266), colleges and universities will be prevented from spending state or federal money to promote, support or maintain programs or campus activities that "advocate for" diversity, equity and inclusion. Schools also will not be able to spend money on programs or activities that "promote or engage in political or social activism" as defined by the State Board of Education or the university system's Board of Governors.

…

Trustees picked by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to oversee New College of Florida voted Tuesday to abolish its small office that handles diversity, equity and inclusion programs targeted by conservatives throughout the state university system.

The trustees voted 9-3 to get rid of the school’s Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence, with four full-time staff positions to be transferred elsewhere to vacant jobs. The board also voted to permit interim President Richard Corcoran to consider ending a single online mandatory employee diversity training program that few actually take.

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The departures at Princeton are part of a pattern in higher education, according to nearly a dozen college and university DEI administrators and staffers who spoke with Inside Higher Ed. While some institutions have elevated their highest-level DEI officers to senior positions or even president, the employees interviewed for this article said that more often, university leaders show a lack of appreciation and support for their work, leading them and many of their colleagues to leave higher ed burned out and disillusioned.

That is the template. This is how it is done. Get the right leaders with spine and skin, remove the sectarian rent seekers from the payroll and redirect those funds and efforts towards the actual mission.

Now, imagine this kind of executive action at the federal level. A President DeSantis could, literally with the stroke of a pen, eliminate the diversity cadre warping our military from service academies to the Joint Staff.

Then he can move over to other executive agencies. It would be even better if Congress would help him - or any President of a similar mind than the present governors of Texas, Georgia, Florida and elsewhere - but not necessary for swift and effective action.

The precedent is already there. All it takes is the will to do so.

The fruit is ripening. Let us hope for a harvest soon.