Since the birth of affirmative action in the 1960s, universities have been the leading advocates and sacred sanctuary for the principles put forth.
Diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, is what affirmative action has devolved into today -- a totally biased, discriminatory practice now utilized throughout most employment sectors in America.
During hiring, promotion processes, and the like, equal opportunity that affirmative action touted has degenerated into DEI’s equal outcomes. The former expected job qualifications to be met; the latter does not.
Amazingly, the University of North Carolina (UNC) has just taken steps to eliminate DEI from campus mandates. Here's a February 23 Fox News lede:
UNC voted to ban DEI statements and compelled speech from admission, hiring, promotion and tenure at its Board of Governors meeting on Thursday.
While common-sense backlash to DEI has been building over the past couple years, a university is the last place most would have expected intelligence on this matter to reign.
Congratulations to the UNC Board of Governors!
Of course, Board of Governors would explain the intelligence: it wasn’t college professors or administrators taking the lead. It was more likely the students, the alumni, and the big benefactors. And, who knows, it may have been something I wrote here.
Having spent 44-years as a university faculty member, with 28-years in central administration, I feel confident making that assessment.
In today’s academy, neither faculty nor administrators would have the backbone to step in front of the national firing squad that’s going to assault UNC as a result of the Board’s action.
But it happened. And there could be major eruptions against it on the UNC campus as well. The self-proclaimed intellectual elite know how to throw a tantrum. Their mentors, Marx and Mao, taught them how mass action will get them what they want.
So, if you’re traveling to Chapel Hill, keep your head down. Innocent bystanders will likely be struck by the hail of venomous shots fired. The woke DEI disciples seldom, if ever, aim before pulling the trigger.
When writing my February 22 article for American Thinker, “Is it DEI, IED, or DIE? Yes, it is!” I was convinced it would be years before a significant effort would be made to slow the DEI juggernaut -- if it ever occurred. As noted in that piece, federal agencies “now appear to be all in on DEI,” which will make reversing course ever more difficult. Thus, UNC’s action was a shockingly quick, pleasant surprise.
The UNC story highlights some of the problems with DEI in their college of medicine, and medical schools are where life and death issues collide making DEI especially concerning. Excellence in medical care should be the goal, not DEI equal outcomes.
Back in the old affirmative action days, when I was teaching biochemistry to first-year medical students at another institution -- 1978 to 1994 -- none of them ever flunked out. If a student didn’t pass the first year, they could recycle and repeat it. If someone didn’t pass year two, they could also recycle and try it again.
Welcome to the land of remedial medicine, and that was three decades ago.
How much worse are things in today’s DEI world?
A lot!
Think about it. DEI is about guaranteeing equal outcomes for all, not equal opportunity to succeed.
Would you want a recycled M.D. treating you in the hospital for COVID complications, prescribing the treatment that might save your life -- maybe?
Do you want a remedial surgeon performing your next operation, whatever it is?
That’s where the shifting of the letters from DEI to IED and DIE in my previous article could be particularly relevant. They better describe the methodology and the consequences.
Interestingly, my first interview for a faculty position was in the medical school at UNC in 1976. It was a memorable experience, unlike any thereafter, and it contributed to my interest in UNC leading the charge challenging DEI.
The first step in the campus process back then involved a member of the search committee taking me around to faculty offices introducing me to potential new colleagues. It required only two stops for me to figure out that a job offer would not be forthcoming at the end of the two-day grilling. In both instances, the second thing I was told after the person’s name was where they got their degrees -- Harvard and Stanford for the first two. My Ph.D. was from Oregon State.
At least it gave me enough information to know not to mention I’d been raised on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. That insight could have terminated the interview on the spot. Still, my experience back then makes the banning of DEI at UNC in 2023 rather unexpected.
But, regardless, good for the UNC Board of Governors. Someone has to take the lead for America’s educational system. It’s failing at all levels.
Many have noted that if there was one positive thing about China unleashing COVID on the world -- it was the discovery by parents of rampant K-12 teaching abominations. That’s helpful, but consider how university DEI contributes to the K-12 atrocities.
Where are the K-12 educators [sic] trained, i.e., indoctrinated?
At America’s DEI universities. Thank you, UNC for fighting back.
Looking beyond education, where are corporate executives and human resource officers trained, i.e., indoctrinated?
At America’s DEI universities. Thank you, UNC for fighting back.
In the public sector, where are politicians and government bureaucrats trained, i.e., indoctrinated?
At America’s DEI universities. Thank you, UNC for fighting back.
The action by the UNC Board of Governors may be little more than a band-aid on a lacerated artery that can kill the patient, but it’s a start.
Thank you, Board of Governors for your efforts to save America!
R.W. Trewyn earned a Ph.D. after surviving Vietnam combat, and more treacherously, survived 53-years postwar slogging academe’s once hallowed halls.
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