Shannon Wilson: UNC Teaching What To Think Not How To Think

You should be at FRETCON 1:

   Indeed, recent moves by the UNC-Chapel Hill administration of chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz threaten the spirit of free inquiry that is the foundation of the modern Western university. The intent appears to be to make the school’s policies and procedures accord with the beliefs of the radical elements that have been rampaging across American universities and cities in recent times.
   In a June 11 email signed by Guskiewicz, provost Robert Blouin, and interim chief “diversity officer” Sibby Anderson-Thompkins, the UNC leaders decried “structural racism” and commented that “painful issues surrounding race and racism continue to plague our country and our University.” They added that “we have much work to do.”
   Although they fail to point to any concrete examples of how racism continues to “plague” the university, they nevertheless are eager to signal that they and UNC have the “correct” views on the present controversies.
  More troubling, however, is that UNC’s top administrators also seem eager for “every person” in the campus community to have a single politically correct perspective on race relations. In a list of actions UNC plans on undertaking to fight “structural racism,” they state: 

This fall we will implement an online diversity, equity and inclusion training, similar to our required Title IX awareness and violence prevention training, for every person in our community to learn new concepts, broaden perspectives and allow us to work from a common set of terms. 

  The language in the above paragraph raises several important red flags. What’s included in the “common set of terms” to which they refer? Does “every person” on campus have to agree with a common set of ideas, including that the country suffers from entrenched “structural racism?” What if students or faculty at UNC do not believe that UNC—and the country—presently suffer from systemic racism? Contrary to what is implied in the email, the notion that current social ills are rooted in systemic racism is a hotly debated claim that is far from settled.
   Another concern is that the administrators stated that the training will be “similar to our required Title IX awareness and violence prevention training.” Will diversity training be similarly required? If so, it seems that students will have no choice but to adjust their beliefs—or at least subject themselves—to UNC’s pre-approved “set of terms” and “institutional values.”