Conservative and Liberal Student Organizations:Conservative Organizations:&nbsp;College Republicans and Young Americans for FreedomLiberal Organizations:&nbsp;College Democrats, Students Demand Action, Davidson Young Democratic Socialists of America, Planned Parenthood Generational Action, Platform Women, Queers &amp; Allies, Queer Mentorship Program, You Are Not A Stranger HereOpenSecrets Data on Davidson College Employee Political Donations:99.52% of Davidson employee donations during the 2020 election cycle have been towards Democratic campaigns, while only 0.48% of employee donations have been to Republican candidates, according to data from <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/davidson-college/recipients?id=D000069184" style=" text-align: start;">OpenSecrets</a>.Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Rating:Davidson College has a <a href="https://www.thefire.org/schools/davidson-college/">red light</a> rating. According to FIRE, &quot;A red light university has at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.&quot;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campus.reform//17676hldpvDemocrat.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii">Stories by Campus Reform about Davidson College:<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16157">Davidson College spends $1 million telling White churches how not to be racist</a>Davidson received a $1 million endowment grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to promote racial justice in white dominated churches.Stories about professors at Davidson College:<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=11209">Davidson prof to let students pick their grades</a>A Davidson professor announced a policy that would let students pick their grade at the beginning of the semester and receive a workload based upon that selection.

CAMPUS PROFILE: Davidson College

Dr. Elliot Stern, president of Saddleback College, a public community college in California, issued an open letter <a href="https://www.saddleback.edu/Message-President-Stern-Commemorating-Juneteenth">commemorating</a> Juneteenth that also voiced support for Critical Race Theory. &nbsp;Amid thoughtful comments on the historical significance of Juneteenth and the importance of commemorating Emancipation, Stern equated the ongoing backlash against Critical Race Theory to the &quot;Red Scare&quot; of the 1950s:&nbsp;<blockquote>&quot;Politicians create bogeymen of scholars of race study and are passing laws to prevent schools from teaching widely acclaimed scholarship,&quot; he wrote. &quot;Critical Race Theory is the new Communism.&quot;</blockquote><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17660">[RELATED: New York college diversity director admits to using Critical Race Theory on campus]</a>If Critical Race Theory is &quot;widely acclaimed scholarship,&quot; as the letter argues, it is also widely criticized scholarship. The New York Times&#39; 1619 Project, a text often used to teach Critical Race Theory, has been <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15720">criticized</a> by academics for including apparent historical falsehoods.&nbsp;Additionally, Campus Reform&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17673">reported</a> yesterday that &quot;a survivor of Mao Zedong&#39;s Communist regime told her school board that the tactics behind Critical Race Theory seem &#39;very familiar.&#39;&rdquo;&nbsp;Campus Reform&nbsp;is <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17653">tracking&nbsp;</a>state bills and laws that block Critical Race Theory, and not a single one bans the teaching of history of race in the United States. Few bills mention Critical Race Theory by name, but instead stipulate that no student may be made to feel superior or inferior to another on the basis of race or sex.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17619">[RELATED: Critical Race Theory motivates summer reading list, &#39;cluster hire&#39; at ASU]</a>The reaction to President Biden proclaiming Juneteenth a national holiday has been almost exclusively positive from the American right. The Republican National Committee <a href="https://gop.com/rnc-celebrates-juneteenth-2021?">announced</a> that it &quot;enthusiastically welcome[s] its adoption as our newest national holiday after President Trump called for it last year.&quot; Out of 211 Republicans in the House, only 14 voted against making Juneteenth a holiday.&nbsp;Campus Reform&nbsp;reached out to Saddleback College for comment; this piece will be updated to reflect any response.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/AngelaLMorabito" style=" text-align: start;">@AngelaLMorabito</a>

Critical Race Theory has received widespread opposition while Juneteenth enjoys bipartisan support as a federal holiday. 

College President: 'Critical Race Theory is the new Communism'

SMITH: Yes, there should be a negative stigma around sex work, it's undignified and empty

As parents across the United States denounce Critical Race Theory in their school districts, Ibram X. Kendi declared that opponents of the framework are merely opposed to activists identifying their racism.This spring, Critical Race Theory has faced opposition from parents of diverse backgrounds not wanting CRT curriculum in schools.&nbsp;In one viral video, a Black mother told the Florida Board of Education that Critical Race Theory is inherently prejudiced against her children.<blockquote>Fla. mom, Keisha King, to the State Board of Education: Critical Race Theory &quot;does not teach the truth, unless you believe that whites are better than blacks ... Telling my child, or any child, that they are in a permanently oppressed status because they are black is racist&quot; <a href="https://t.co/DHJFONDXxx">pic.twitter.com/DHJFONDXxx</a>&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1403297459992944642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 11, 2021</a></blockquote>&ldquo;CRT and its outworking today is a teaching that there is a hierarchy in society where white male heterosexual able-bodied people are deemed the oppressor and anyone else outside of that status is oppressed,&rdquo; she declared. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know about you, but telling my child or any child that they are in a permanent oppressed status in America because they are black is racist, and saying that white people are automatically above me, my children or any child is racist as well.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17608">[RELATED: Albion College makes Kendi&#39;s &lsquo;How to Be an Antiracist&rsquo; required reading for first-year students]</a>A White mother in Colorado <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcCPNPvsfS0&t=2s">denounced</a> her school board for failing to consult parents over the worldviews taught to their children.&ldquo;We are the ones that have the moral authority over their education,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;We will not be marginalized. The board&rsquo;s job is to represent the stakeholders&hellip; The stakeholders who were consulted before this policy was implemented does not list parents. Neither does the advisory committee. We are the stakeholders and we need to be included in this.&rdquo;&ldquo;I do think there&rsquo;s a concerted backlash from people who recognize that this time last year a growing number of Americans were either speaking out against racism or growing an awareness of the problem of racism,&rdquo; Kendi, a Boston University professor, told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/12/ibram-x-kendi-antiracism-backlash-interview">The Guardian</a> via Zoom.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17613">[RELATED: Warren and Pressley make charges of &#39;policy violence,&#39; &#39;public health impact of racism&#39; at Kendi&#39;s CRT forum]</a>But critiques of Critical Race Theory tend to focus on the framework&#39;s application as curriculum and education policy, not a recognition of the existence of racism.&nbsp;For example, a survivor of Mao Zedong&#39;s Communist regime told her school board that the tactics behind Critical Race Theory seem &ldquo;very familiar.&rdquo;<blockquote>What a chilling warning for parents from someone who came to this country from China. <a href="https://t.co/GOLmvntqgn">pic.twitter.com/GOLmvntqgn</a>&mdash; fightforschools (@fightforschools) <a href="https://twitter.com/fightforschools/status/1402647901738881027?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 9, 2021</a></blockquote>&ldquo;You are now training our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Growing up in Mao&rsquo;s China, all of this seems very familiar. The Communist regime used the same critical theory to divide people; the only difference is they used class instead of race.&rdquo;&ldquo;During the Cultural Revolution, I witnessed students and teachers turn against each other,&rdquo; she recalled. &ldquo;We changed school names to be politically correct. We were taught to denounce our heritage. The Red Guards destroyed anything that is not Communist: old statues, books, and anything else.&rdquo;Campus Reform reached out to Kendi for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

'You are now training our children to be social justice warriors and to loathe our country and our history,' one parent said of CRT, likening its effect to her experience living in Communist China. 

As Asian, Black, White parents stand up to CRT, Ibram X. Kendi dismisses opponents' arguments 

Conservative and Liberal Student Organizations:Conservative Organizations:&nbsp;Turning Point USA and University of Oregon College Republicans&nbsp;Liberal Organizations:&nbsp;Climate Justice League, Coalition Against Environmental Racism, Gun Control in the United States, LGBTQ+ Alliance, LGBTESSP, Mecha, No Lost Generation UO, Our Revolution, Out in STEM, Queer Ally Coalition, Queer Media Association, Queer, Trans &amp; Intersex Students of Color, Radical Organizing and Activism Research Center (ROAR), Student Insurgent, Students for Choice, Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights, University of Oregon College Democrats, Womxn of Color Coalition, Young Democratic SocialistsOpenSecrets Data on University of Oregon Employee Political Donations:&nbsp;In the 2020 election cycle, 98.75% of donations went to Democrats, while 1.25% went to Republicans, according to <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/university-of-oregon/recipients?id=D000030683">OpenSecrets.</a>Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Rating:The University of Oregon has a <a href="https://www.thefire.org/schools/university-of-oregon/">yellow light</a> rating. According to FIRE, &quot;Yellow light colleges and universities are those institutions with at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application.&quot;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campus.reform//176750fhx4Democrat.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii">Stories by Campus Reform about the University of Oregon:<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=10361">University of Oregon symposium asks &#39;What&#39;s Up With Whiteness?&#39;</a>The University of Oregon held a symposium to discuss &ldquo;what&rsquo;s up with whiteness&rdquo;, and help participants find their place in discussions about &ldquo;race and systemic injustice&rdquo; and become better &ldquo;allies.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=9942">Clueless protesters shout down University of Oregon prez</a>A group of student protestors prevented University of Oregon President Michael Schill from giving a speech regarding how the school would utilize a recent $50 million donation, forcing him to give a video address.Stories about questionable policies at the University of Oregon:<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=16674">University of Oregon begins disarming police</a>The University of Oregon has begun disarming twenty-six percent of University of Oregon Police Department officers and increasing the number of unarmed officers in response to &ldquo;recent incidents of police violence against people of color.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=16254">University of Oregon promises to ignore Trump&#39;s critical race theory executive order</a>University of Oregon President Michael Schill announced the University&rsquo;s intention to openly defy President Trump&rsquo;s executive order prohibiting the promotion of critical race theory by federal employees and contractors.&nbsp;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=16049">EXCLUSIVE: University of Oregon&rsquo;s anti-racism plan considers defunding police, endorsing BLM, using diversity as employment factor</a>Internal documents obtained by Campus Reform reveal the University of Oregon&rsquo;s consideration of endorsing the Black Lives Matter movement, defunding the school police department, and the use of diversity and identity within the process of hiring new employees&nbsp;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=14719">University of Oregon takes drastic action to shore up coronavirus revenue losses</a>In response to lost revenue caused by the Coronavirus Pandemic, the University of Oregon announced plans to lay-off 282 school employees while extending their healthcare benefits, with the intention of rehiring the laid-off employees after work once again becomes available.&nbsp;

CAMPUS PROFILE: University of Oregon

A Christian university&#39;s Student Government Association is recommending students take &quot;helpful classes&quot; related to &quot;anti-racism.&quot;The Northwest Nazarene University Student Government Association sent out an email referring students to an anti-racism guide that promoted several social justice courses. This document, sent out in an October 19, 2020, email obtain by Campus Reform,&nbsp;was authored by SGA Campus Ministries.This anti-racism <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VIs2KkfVls9B1_SN0SbThu9ckSbMXUCf7tKUnYv2cCU/edit">guide</a> contains a long list of poems, books, videos, and articles on the topic of racism. Many of these resources originate from widely-known proponents of critical race theory, such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin Di&rsquo;Angelo.&nbsp;Among these resources is a list of anti-racist classes to take at NNU. The classes advertised by Student Ministries are Human Diversity, Social Justice and Modern Society, Social Justice and the Christian Tradition, Race, Class, and Gender, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, and Issues of the Global Church.&nbsp;The first class on the list, Human Diversity, is a psychology course. It is <a href="https://catalog.nnu.edu/cas/course-descriptions/psyc">described</a> as follows:&ldquo;This course examines the multifaceted levels of diversity in humanity and will review ways to approach diversity in a sensitive and appropriate manner. Topics to be covered include a history of human diversity, cultural diversity, age differences, gender issues, spirituality, sexuality, religious diversity, physical impairments, and how to be sensitive to issues of diversity as they pertain to working with people. Key human rights and understandings will be explored.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17626">[RELATED: Texas A&amp;M&#39;s massive glossary of social justice terms: &lsquo;Christian Privilege,&rsquo; &lsquo;Critical Race Feminism,&rsquo; &#39;Critical Race Theory&#39;]</a>The second class listed, called Social Justice and Modern Society, is a social work class. It <a href="https://catalog.nnu.edu/cas/course-descriptions/sowk">covers</a> the following material:&ldquo;This course is an introduction to the recurrent needs of citizens and how society is organized to respond to these needs with an emphasis on small towns and rural communities. The course is organized around the major themes of poverty, socioeconomic class differences, and other major differences among people that interact with poverty and classism. The course includes a review of the history and current nature of social welfare services.&rdquo;The next class on the list, Social Justice and the Christian Tradition, is a theology class. This class is summarized in its <a href="https://catalog.nnu.edu/cas/course-descriptions/theo">course description</a>:&ldquo;The virtue of justice has deep roots in Christian Scripture, philosophy, and the Christian theological tradition as an essential feature of a society ordered toward the common good. What does justice look like in the tradition of Christian thought? What makes a just society? How might Christians actively contribute to a society that is more just? This course encourages students to explore such questions through Scripture, the church&rsquo;s theological heritage, and engagement with the work of active practitioners today.&rdquo;Race, Class, and Gender is a cultural anthropology course. It is <a href="https://catalog.nnu.edu/cas/course-descriptions/clta">outlined</a> as covering the following material:&ldquo;A study of the contemporary diversity of society with a focus on inter-group relations (e.g., assimilation, conflict, and pluralism). Emphasis is placed on gaining an understanding of the multi-cultural nature of American society in comparison with other societies and on formulating a viable response.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17584">[RELATED: Texas Christian University to nix the word &#39;freshmen&#39; in push for &#39;inclusive excellence&#39;]</a>The fifth class listed is an Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.&nbsp;According to its <a href="https://catalog.nnu.edu/cas/course-descriptions/clta">course description</a>, &ldquo;This course focuses on basic perspectives and concepts for understanding and productively relating to groups and individuals in other cultures. It includes an introduction to the discipline, history of the discipline and its development, and methods of cultural anthropology.&rdquo;Campus Reform&nbsp;reached out to the NNU SGA for comment, but has not heard back in time for publication. This article will be updated accordingly.

A Christian university's Student Government Association is recommending students take 'helpful classes' related to 'anti-racism.'

EXCLUSIVE: NNU Campus Ministry students encouraged to take anti-racist classes

Younger Americans are less inclined to support free speech when it comes from the other side of the political divide.Adults between 18-34 years old are &quot;less supportive of free speech than older generations, except when it comes to insulting the Stars and Stripes,&quot; Foreign Policy&nbsp;<a href="http://are less supportive of free speech than older generations, except when it comes to insulting the Stars and Stripes.">reported</a> last week.&nbsp;Campus Reform has reported time and time again on stories of one-sided liberal bias on the issue of free speech. Here are just a few. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9380"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9380">1. University of California, Berkeley</a>UC Berkeley has had a <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9380">long</a> history of committing actions that limit freedom of speech. This includes once when the <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11592">university</a> attempted to silence a conservative group by preventing their speaker from going on campus.&nbsp;It should be of no surprise to no one that they would host a speaker who believed that the first amendment should be further <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=13958">limited</a>. <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10043"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10043">2. University of Oregon</a>Back in 2017, University President Schill attempted to protect freedom of speech on Campus. The students on his campus did not agree.&nbsp;The students on his campus would go on to shout him down. The students would shout &ldquo;Nothing about us without us!&rdquo; and repeatedly referring to Schill as &ldquo;CEO Schill.&rdquo; They would additionally complain about &ldquo;fascist&rdquo; propaganda.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9953">3. University of Michigan</a>The University of Michigan has shown a unique level of hypocrisy. Years ago students aggressively chanted against Charles Murray&rsquo;s appearance at an event. Protestors screamed &ldquo;Charles Murray go away; sexist, racist, KKK! Charles Murray go away; sexist, racist KKK!,&rdquo;&nbsp;The school however is <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14194">home</a> to a professor who has referred to former President Donald Trump as a &ldquo;mad bomber.&rdquo; He was not met anywhere near as much backlash.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10826">4. Columbia University</a>When college Republicans attempted to host Anthony Scaramucci, they were met with backlash. Students would yell &ldquo;Dear students, what is anti-Black racism?&rdquo; Other students would demand that they &ldquo;Decolonize Columbia,&rdquo;Columbia University now <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=15370">hosts</a> a &#39;deconstructing whiteness&#39; workshop for &#39;white-identified students.&#39; This tells you everything about the school.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14407">5. Duke University</a>Duke University is home to students who in the past have attempted to shut down Campus Reform from interviewing students on campus. On student stated, &ldquo;We are not going to talk to you because you are part of Campus Reform, now leave.&rdquo;At Duke University however social justice advocates such as the singer John Legend are invited to speak at commencement ceremonies. Legend would <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17644">state</a> &ldquo;America&rsquo;s story has always been marred by efforts to exclude, to dominate, to subjugate&hellip; to keep certain groups of people with no voice, no power, and no opportunity,&rdquo;&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ajmunguia23">@ajmunguia23</a>

Trends show that tolerance of free speech diminishes when it comes from conservatives.

Free speech for all? National trends show a one-sided story

The National Institutes of Health unveiled a plan to address &ldquo;structural racism&rdquo; by increasing the diversity of grant recipients.The NIH is spending <a href="https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(21)00631-0?utm_source=EA">$60 million</a> to &ldquo;support innovative investigator-initiated projects aimed at reducing health disparities and inequalities&rdquo; &mdash; a process in which &ldquo;institutions that serve minority populations will be prioritized for select awards.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17345">[RELATED: Echoing campus leftists, CDC director says racism is a &#39;public health&#39; crisis]</a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17345"></a> Charlene Le Fauve &mdash; Senior Advisor to the Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity at the NIH &mdash; referred Campus Reform to a <a href="https://www.nimhd.nih.gov/about/strategic-plan/nih-strategic-plan-definitions-and-parameters.html">resource</a> clarifying that the agency defines &ldquo;minority health populations&rdquo; as &ldquo;American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander,&rdquo; as well as &ldquo;Latino or Hispanic.&rdquo;The agency has also created a framework entitled &ldquo;UNITE&rdquo; &mdash; &ldquo;understanding stakeholder experiences through listening and learning,&rdquo; &ldquo;new research on health disparities, minority health, and health equity,&rdquo; &ldquo;improving the NIH culture and structure for equity, inclusion, and excellence,&rdquo; &ldquo;transparency, communication, and accountability with our internal and external stakeholders,&rdquo; and &ldquo;extramural research ecosystem: changing policy, culture, and structure to promote workforce diversity.&rdquo; Each portion of the framework is managed by a designated committee.Campus Reform has frequently reported on federal agencies adopting diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as other left-leaning sociological tools.For instance, the Department of Health and Human Services&rsquo; Head Start program hosted a group of professors to discuss &ldquo;anti-racism&rdquo; in early childhood education.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17609"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17609">[RELATED: Federal government hosted professors&#39; talks on anti-racist education for young children]</a>Le Fauve pointed Campus Reform toward the agency&rsquo;s 2019 &ldquo;diversity statement,&rdquo; which asserts that &ldquo;diverse teams working together and capitalizing on innovative ideas and distinct perspectives outperform homogenous teams.&rdquo;&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

The National Institutes of Health is allocating $60 million in push to fund 'institutions that serve minority populations.'

NIH releases plan to ‘prioritize’ minority grant applicants

In a video address to the class of 2021, President Biden likened the political effort to achieve woke policies to the Vietnam War.&nbsp;President Biden stated in the short, pre-recorded address that college students are graduating at an &ldquo;inflection point&rdquo; in American history defined by climate change and &quot;systemic racism.&quot;<blockquote>Congratulations to the Class of 2021. You&rsquo;re graduating at an inflection point in our nation&rsquo;s history &ndash; and you have a genuine opportunity to change the trajectory of our country. Seize this moment. I can&rsquo;t wait to see what you accomplish. <a href="https://t.co/pl3Or74lxg">pic.twitter.com/pl3Or74lxg</a>&mdash; President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1401265787776770048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2021</a></blockquote>Biden also called the events of his adolescence &mdash; the assassination Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the Vietnam War, and the civil rights movement &mdash; an &ldquo;inflection point.&rdquo;&nbsp;He said the same of college students graduating in the present era: &ldquo;And now, you face another inflection point. As we put this pandemic behind us, rebuild our economy, root out systemic racism, and tackle climate change, we&rsquo;re addressing the great crises of our time with a greater sense of purpose than ever before.&rdquo;The comments represent a marked shift in rhetoric from the president.&nbsp;Seven years ago, then-Vice President Biden told a crowd of Harvard University students that there is &ldquo;nothing special about being an American.&rdquo;The full quote from the 2014 speech read &quot;there&rsquo;s nothing special about being American -- none of you can define for me what an American is.&quot;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16000"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16000">[RELATED: Joe Biden to Harvard in 2014: &#39;There&#39;s nothing special about being American,&#39; her &#39;strength ultimately lies in its people&#39;]</a>In contrast, the 2021 speech made reference to &quot;our nation.&quot;&nbsp;&ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be up to you to translate that unprecedented change into a greater measure of happiness and prosperity for not only you and our nation, but for the world around you,&rdquo; concluded the President. &ldquo;And I know you will.&rdquo;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

In 2014, he told a crowd of Harvard students that there is 'nothing special about being an American.'

Biden tells college students the left's political agenda is comparable to Vietnam War 

Conservative and Liberal Student Organizations:Conservative Organizations:&nbsp;UA College Republicans, UA Young Americans for Freedom, Young Americans for Liberty, Today is Bama, Students for Trump, The Free-Thinker Project, Turning Point USA, Young Women for America, Bama Students for Life &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Liberal Organizations:&nbsp;UA College Democrats, UA Young Democratic Socialists of America, Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, Our Time, Planned Parenthood Generation America, Students for Fair Labor, SpectrumOpenSecrets Data on University of Alabama Political Donations:&nbsp;88.41% of donations went to Democrat candidates in federal elections, while 11.59% of donations went to Republican candidates in federal elections, according to data from <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/university-of-alabama/recipients?id=D000030644">OpenSecrets.</a>Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Rating: &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<div>The University of Alabama has been giving a <a href="https://www.thefire.org/schools/university-of-alabama/">yellow light</a> speech code rating due to at least one ambiguous policy that too easily encourages administrative abuse and arbitrary application (namely, its Harassment policy). UA has also adopted the Chicago Statement for Free Speech.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campus.reform//17669htiyx8Democrat.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii">Stories by Campus Reform about the University of Alabama&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17048">Full stadiums, full classrooms: University of Alabama plans return to pre-pandemic normalcy in fall 2021&nbsp;</a>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The University of Alabama announced it will fully return to pre-pandemic normalcy by Fall 2021. The UA System chancellor announced plans for full capacity stadiums and a complete return to in-person learning.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=10191">University of Alabama only hosted two conservatives last year</a>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;A Campus Reform survey of official events at the University of Alabama (UA) shows that the public institution hosted only two conservative speakers during the 2016-2017 academic year, while hosting 16 other speakers who either addressed controversial topics or were known for their political involvement.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=5434">VIDEO: University of Alabama censors pro-life students, secretly removes display&nbsp;</a></div><div>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Administrators at the University of Alabama removed a pro-life display from the Ferguson Student Center which they said contained &ldquo;offensive&rdquo; material.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=4858">University of Alabama issued 55k parking tickets in 2012-13 school year</a>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;According to new data, the University of Alabama issued nearly 55,000 parking tickets last year. That averages out to over one ticket per student.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;</div>

CAMPUS PROFILE: University of Alabama

Medaille College Director of Diversity &amp; Inclusion Kenya Hobbs wrote an <a href="https://www.medaille.edu/my-medaille/news/can-we-talk-about-critical-race-theory">article</a> in June challenging &ldquo;controversial laws&rdquo; that seek to ban CRT in education, defending its utility on campus.&nbsp;&ldquo;CRT sounds, to me, like the work the Medaille community has been engaged in through various avenues throughout this past academic year,&rdquo; Hobbs said in the article. His statement comes as a wave of bills banning CRT enter dozens of state legislators across the nation.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17318">[RELATED: Louisiana introduces bill to ban teaching of Critical Race Theory topics like &#39;institutional racism&rsquo;]</a>At Medaille, efforts have included <a href="https://www.medaille.edu/my-medaille/news/change-though-difficult-good">faculty discussions</a> of White Fragility.Back in November, Hobbs also criticized Trump&#39;s executive order on &ldquo;Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping&rdquo; for its limits on discussing topics like white privilege and white guilt.&ldquo;If we are to learn anything from this country&rsquo;s past failures and missteps, and work together to find ways to truly live out the principles upon which this country was founded, we must discuss certain matters in workshops and training,&rdquo; he wrote in a <a href="https://www.medaille.edu/my-medaille/news/our-vision-needs-correcting">November post.&nbsp;</a>In the same post, he noted that the 1619 project&mdash;which as Campus Reform reported has been consistently <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14822">debunked</a>&mdash;can &ldquo;help correct the vision of Americans.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17456">[RELATED: New Hampshire universities defend their ability to teach Critical Race Theory]</a>Other universities have also pushed back against attempts to ban Critical Race Theory. Campus Reform recently <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17456">reported&nbsp;</a>on a letter signed by leading New Hampshire universities warning about House Bill 544, which &ldquo;prohibits the dissemination of certain divisive concepts related to sex and race.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17653">[RELATED: Critical Race Theory 101 with Angela Morabito]</a>Currently, lawmakers in New York are not considering a similar ban. But Hobbs still wants students to avoid becoming &ldquo;misinformed&rdquo; by the controversies.&nbsp;&ldquo;To avoid making the same mistakes that led to inequities in the past, we must be able to do the work and show our work. That means talking about Critical Race Theory, continuously engaging in uncomfortable conversations, and doing the work,&rdquo; Hobbs writes.&nbsp;Campus Reform reached out to Kenya Hobbs and Medaille College for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.

The college official opposes bans on CRT and is on the record touting the '1619 Project.'

New York college diversity director admits to using Critical Race Theory on campus 

Georgia college students are organizing to make sure that Sonny Perdue, the state&#39;s former governor and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under Donald Trump, does not get appointed to serve as the chancellor of the University System of Georgia.The Atlanta Journal Constitution <a href="https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/sonny-perdue-under-consideration-to-lead-georgias-higher-ed-system/2I6E6D4EKBGUNFA5BTBYJBBJJE/">reported</a> in March that Perdue is being considered for the high-level position, which <a href="https://www.usg.edu/chancellor/">oversees</a> the state&#39;s public universities. That decision drove liberal students to <a href="https://georgiastatesignal.com/students-and-staff-oppose-sonny-perdue-as-potential-usg-chancellor/">protest</a> against the former governor.&nbsp;The largest student group opposing Perdue&rsquo;s selection, boasting 336 Instagram followers, dubbed itself &ldquo;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/studentsagainstsonny/">Students Against Sonny</a>&rdquo; and was founded roughly a month after news of Perdue&rsquo;s possible appointment broke.Students Against Sonny <a href="https://www.change.org/p/sonny-perdue-students-against-sonny-protecting-the-future-of-georgia-higher-ed?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_28388033_en-US%3A4&recruited_by_id=e1efc330-9f0d-11eb-ac5b-45886dd8b9d1&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_camp">charges&nbsp;</a>the former governor with, among other things, being unqualified for the position, threatening HBCUs and planning to abolish the HOPE scholarship, a scholarship offered to Georgia students who demonstrate financial need and meet a short list of requirements. The third claim comes despite Perdue having <a href="https://sonnyperdue.georgia.gov/00/press/detail/0%2C2668%2C78006749_92321069_92350066%2C00.html">renewed</a> the HOPE scholarship during his tenure as governor.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7445"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7445">[RELATED: PSU protesters shut down trustees meeting, demand members pay for tuition]</a>The group created an online <a href="https://www.change.org/p/sonny-perdue-students-against-sonny-protecting-the-future-of-georgia-higher-ed?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_28388033_en-US%3A4&recruited_by_id=e1efc330-9f0d-11eb-ac5b-45886dd8b9d1&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_camp">petition</a> in opposition to Perdue&rsquo;s appointment, which has since garnered just over 1500 signatures.Two organizers of the protest movement <a href="https://open.spotify.com/episode/3UYoRBjInbsaikVwbiCtPR">appeared</a> on a 46 minute long podcast hosted by humanities lecturers at Georgia Tech. &nbsp;During the podcast interview, the student activists argued that Perdue is unfit to fill the role and implied that he is only being considered for the job due to his political connections. One of the organizers also described themselves as an &ldquo;anarchist.&rdquo;Students Against Sonny did not respond to Campus Reform&rsquo;s request for comment.The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the accreditation agency responsible for Georgia&rsquo;s public higher education institutions, <a href="https://www.ajc.com/education/agency-warns-georgia-regents-against-politicizing-chancellor-search/NDBHGL3YGFB5FMPUVH6S5OHRSM/">warned</a> officials of the potential consequences of selecting a candidate without &ldquo;appropriate experience and qualifications&rdquo; following the reports of Perdue&rsquo;s consideration,&quot; according to the AJC.Matt Boedy, a professor at the University of North Georgia and president of Georgia&rsquo;s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, told Campus Reform that he believes &ldquo;Perdue is not remotely qualified for the job&rdquo; and &ldquo;the Regents should choose someone with higher education experience and who wants to be an advocate for the faculty, staff, and students of the USG.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=16150"></a><a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=16150">[RELATED: UMN students demand Dem governor &#39;drop the charges&#39; against arrested protesters]</a>Boedy also referred Campus Reform to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20691799-sacs">letter</a>&nbsp;composed by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.The letter, released April 26 in response to the AJC&rsquo;s reporting, asserts that the accreditation of Georgia&rsquo;s public universities could be threatened if an individual not inline with their &ldquo;Principles of Accreditation&rdquo; is appointed. USG Board of Regents Chairman Sachin Shailendra is reminded in the letter that his board must be independent of &ldquo;undue influence by external persons or bodies&rdquo; and that anyone selected for the Chancellorship must be appropriately credentialed.&nbsp;Much of the letter deals with the requirement of the board to remain politically neutral, suggesting that the SACS believes they may not have been when considering Perdue.The Board of Regents&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2021/04/22/georgia-board-of-regents-search-chancellor.html">suspended</a>&nbsp;their search for a new chancellor six days after the letter was sent, though&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ajc.com/education/georgia-board-of-regents-to-restart-chancellor-search-process/U5SVGER7CJEPVD2M4G23M4WBM4/">resumed</a>&nbsp;the process on May 11 with the search firm previously heading the effort deciding not to continue.

Backlash put a temporary pause on the search new chancellor of the University of Georgia System this spring, with the ongoing search resuming last month.    

Georgia students protest Sonny Perdue's candidacy for statewide higher-ed leadership role

The Northwestern University Associated Student government is calling for one conservative Board of Trustee member to be removed from the school&#39;s presidential search committee.On June 2, student government members approved a resolution to remove J. Landis Martin, Chairman for the Northwestern University&rsquo;s Board of Trustees, from the Presidential Search Committee, which&nbsp;is <a href="https://dailynorthwestern.com/2021/04/12/campus/board-of-trustees-announces-36-member-search-committee-for-next-university-president/">reported</a> to be choosing the next Northwestern University President within the next year, according to the&nbsp;<a href="https://dailynorthwestern.com/2021/06/04/campus/asg-passes-resolution-calling-for-recusal-of-board-of-trustees-chair-from-the-presidential-search-committee-other-bills/">Daily Northwestern</a>.Outlined in the &ldquo;Resolution for the Recusal of J. Landis Martin from the Presidential Search Committee&rdquo; are the reasons the student government voted 17-1 to dismiss Martin on June 2nd.&nbsp;The resolution lists that that &ldquo;Northwestern University students are a diverse population that identify with many of the groups that Donald Trump harmed during his campaign and presidency,&rdquo; and also &ldquo;the conservative political ideology of Donald Trump, including those that support him, do not align with the views of the average Northwestern undergraduate.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=16789">[RELATED: Baylor students want to remove statue of...Baylor?]</a>Jo Scaletty, a member of the ASG senate and a member of the Justice and Inclusion committee, told Campus Reform the reasoning behind the resolution.Once asked what was the motivation behind co-authoring the resolution, Scaletty stated, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s my hope that this encourages future consideration for how people in positions of power have affected NU students, directly or not.&rdquo;&nbsp;Scaletty continued, &ldquo;by contributing to Trump&rsquo;s campaign, Martin helped cause a lot of pain for communities at NU, as Trump went on to implement policies that were dangerous for marginalized people. I&rsquo;m hoping that this legislation pushes these issues to the front and centers marginalized voices.&rdquo;The Deep End is a left-leaning student organization dedicated to reporting issues relevant to Northwestern University&rsquo;s campus.&nbsp;While recording an episode for&nbsp;The Deep End&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.facebook.com/thedeepend.nu/posts/1399367010440253">episode&nbsp;</a>on the ASG, Deep End reporters discovered Martin&rsquo;s donations to the Trump Victory political action committee, totaling up to $30,000 in 2016. These funds are cited in ASG&rsquo;s call to remove the committee member.&ldquo;During the time that The Deep End [wrote] its most recent piece, the journalism team learned of his involvement with Haliburton and Trump, and we wanted to fight against his presence in a board of people meant to choose the next Northwestern President.&rdquo; Scaletty said.Visible on<a href="https://www.facebook.com/thedeepend.nu/">&nbsp;The Deep End&rsquo;s Facebook page</a> are pushes to raise funds for <a href="http://www.bravespacealliance.org/blog/blacktranslivesmatter?fbclid=IwAR1wv59e736_8f-wI9sgxCFwzNuCdTlW6PS05A5SbODrnPxftERxizCMp-4">The Brave Space Alliance</a>, a &ldquo;Black-led, trans-led LGBTQ+ Center&rdquo; which donates specifically to transgender peoples as well as for the Black Lives Matter organization.<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17644"></a><a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17644">[RELATED: Climate change, trans rights, dismantling White supremacy: Leading leftists deliver graduation speeches]</a>Although resolutions passed in ASG are claimed to be representative of the student body, David Grow, Student Senator for Nortwestern&rsquo;s College Republicans told<a href="https://dailynorthwestern.com/2021/06/04/campus/asg-passes-resolution-calling-for-recusal-of-board-of-trustees-chair-from-the-presidential-search-committee-other-bills/">&nbsp;The Daily Northwestern</a> that this legislation is not indicative of Republicans on campus.&nbsp;&ldquo;A lot of people in the Northwestern administration are left-leaning,&rdquo; Grow said. &ldquo;I felt as if what it really boiled down to was they don&rsquo;t want somebody that could possibly be against what they stand for.&rdquo;Despite this resolution passing almost unanimously in ASG, it is noted by Executive Officer of Accountability Margot Bartol that this resolution going into effect and removing Martin from his position is unlikely, as stated in&nbsp;The Daily Northwestern.Campus Reform reached out to Northwestern University Media Relations, but did not receive a reply in time for publication.

A co-author of the resolution claimed this action was necessary due to Trump’s policies affecting marginalized people.

Northwestern U student government pushes university to remove conservative from presidential search committee

Critical Race Theory on college campuses has led to students and faculty members being punished for questioning segregated events and mandatory social justice trainings.

Critical Race Theory 101 with Angela Morabito 

The University of Illinois&rsquo; law school has launched a Racial Justice Practicum this summer to teach about &ldquo;racial justice as it relates to the legal profession.&rdquo;&nbsp;The <a href="https://blogs.illinois.edu/view/7000/380970510">program</a> is inspired by the death of George Floyd.Students will receive &ldquo;externship placements with legal aid agencies or non-profit organizations that represent populations affected by racism in Illinois and elsewhere.&rdquo; Among these organizations are the ACLU, the Equal Justice Initiative, and Equip for Equality.Depending on the number of credits completed, students will receive a stipend of up to $6,000.University of Illinois College of Law Assistant Dean for Administration Carolyn Turner told Campus Reform that there are seventeen students enrolled in the practicum. &ldquo;A number of Chicago&rsquo;s top law firms and some generous alumni&rdquo; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-xmjEAc4Fc">funded</a> the program.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17599">[RELATED: University of Illinois Chicago law school cancels former Chief Justice John Marshall]</a>The course <a href="https://law.illinois.edu/academics/courses/racial-justice-practicum/">description</a> for the Racial Justice Practicum <a href="https://law.illinois.edu/academics/courses/course-type/upper-level/">classes</a> states that each module &ldquo;will be taught as a module by a guest lecturer who is an expert in the field.&quot; Student grades will also be weighed equally between attendance and &quot;written Racial Justice Journals.&quot;As Campus Reform recently reported, the University of Illinois&rsquo; Urbana-Champaign campus recently committed $2 million annually for research into systemic racism.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17439"></a><a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17439">[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: U of Illinois commits $2 million EVERY YEAR for &#39;systemic racism&#39; research]</a>Campus Reform&nbsp;reached out to the University of Illinois for comment; this article will be updated accordingly. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

Students will receive a stipend of up to $6,000 for completing a course and a subsequent externship.

University of Illinois law school launches 'racial justice practicum'

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that its official stance that Title IX also applies to gender identity, signaling that keeping biological men out of women&#39;s sports could legally be considered discrimination.&nbsp;The Department of Education released an official statement, called a <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/202106-titleix-noi.pdf">notice of interpretation</a>, stating its belief that ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County&nbsp;also applies to schools. Bostock&nbsp;was an employment law case in which the Supreme Court decided that employers could not discriminate based on an employee or applicant&#39;s transgender status or sexual orientation.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16919">[RELATED: Biden admin drops support of female athletes after transgender executive order]</a>According to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/16/us/politics/title-ix-transgender-students.html">New York Times</a>,<blockquote>&quot;[Cardona] likened the announcement to setting down a marker for schools nationwide, alerting them that the Biden Education Department would not tolerate discrimination in schools receiving federal funds.&quot;&nbsp;</blockquote>Though the announcement &quot;will guide the Department in processing complaints and conducting investigations,&quot; says the notice of interpretation, &quot;it does not itself determine the outcome in any particular case or set of facts.&quot;Following President Biden&#39;s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-preventing-and-combating-discrimination-on-basis-of-gender-identity-or-sexual-orientation/">day-one Executive Order</a> on gender discrimination, the <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16919">Department of Education and Department of Justice dropped their support</a> of three female athletes who were suing their school&#39;s athletic conference for allowing biological men to compete.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16701">[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Students concerned about Biden&#39;s transgender athlete order]</a>Today&#39;s announcement comes during the Department of Education&#39;s review of existing policies relating to Title IX, including public hearings held last week. At those hearings, <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17596">several female athletes told the Department</a> that they lost out on athletic and educational opportunities because they were out-competed in their own sports by biological men.&nbsp;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/AngelaLMorabito" style=" text-align: start;">@AngelaLMorabito</a>

Earlier this year, Biden's executive order led the Department of Education and Department of Justice to cease their support of female athletes' suit against a statewide policy permitting men on women's teams.

Allowing men in women's sports just became the Biden administration's official policy

A former Barnard College mathematics professor recently proposed that college admissions should &quot;use random selection instead&quot; of the traditional application process.&nbsp;O&rsquo;Neil believes that randomized admissions at certain colleges could test the theory that &ldquo;diversity adds value.&rdquo;&ldquo;There could be a weak notion of who is &lsquo;qualified&rsquo; &mdash; say, a high school degree and a minimum grade point average,&rdquo; wrote <a href="https://www.apam.columbia.edu/data-algorithms-consequences-society">Cathy O&rsquo;Neil</a> &mdash; who also launched the Lede Program in Data Journalism at Columbia University &mdash; in <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-06-03/college-admissions-shouldn-t-be-trusted-to-humans-">Bloomberg Opinion</a>. &ldquo;Beyond that, selection would be publicly and provably random. Never mind optional standardized tests. If you show interest, your name goes in a big hat.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17180" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Harvard uses &#39;arbitrary and illogical&#39; race criteria in admissions, attorney says]</a>Although &ldquo;kids who struggled to get perfect grades,&rdquo; &ldquo;who spent their high school years getting really good at obscure yet in-demand sports,&rdquo; and &ldquo;the legacies and the offspring of big donors&rdquo; would lose their advantages, O&rsquo;Neil believes that the benefits outweigh the costs.&ldquo;Colleges wouldn&rsquo;t have to worry about fighting claims of racial discrimination in the Supreme Court, because by construction the admissions process would be non-discriminatory,&rdquo; she argued. &ldquo;No more &lsquo;soft&rsquo; criteria. No more biased tests. Just blind chance.&rdquo;Campus Reform reached out to O&rsquo;Neil for comment; this article will be updated accordingly. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft">@BenZeisloft</a>

She also created a data journalism program at Columbia University. 

Former Columbia U Prof: Make college admissions random, leave it to 'just blind chance'

The University of Oklahoma rejected an appeal from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a nonprofit, to revise its mandatory diversity training. Recently, the FIRE&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thefire.org/university-of-oklahoma-refuses-to-end-compelled-speech-in-diversity-training-program/">discovered</a> that the University of Oklahoma is forcing students to attend a virtual program that &ldquo;required trainees to acknowledge their agreements with the university&rsquo;s approved political viewpoints in order to complete the requirement.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17314"></a> <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17314"></a> <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17314">[RELATED: Stanford newspaper tweeted movie reference deemed racist; will now subject ENTIRE STAFF to &#39;anti-bias training&#39;]</a> According to FIRE&rsquo;s November 16 <a href="https://d28htnjz2elwuj.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/30165546/FIRE-Letter-to-University-of-Oklahoma-November-16-2020.pdf">letter</a> to administrators, the program &ldquo;begins with a set of questions titled &lsquo;Insights&rsquo; that are said to &lsquo;encourage reflection and introspection.&rsquo;&rdquo; Though the section states that there are &ldquo;no right answers to these questions and your selections will be completely anonymous,&rdquo; graduate student Elizabeth Owen &mdash; who alerted FIRE to the program &mdash; was forced to repeat questions until she selected the answer that the university deemed correct. &ldquo;One of the questions in the training asked Owen to &lsquo;try to help your frustrated coworker, Michael, realize that understanding difference is not a prerequisite for respecting it,&rsquo;&rdquo; explains FIRE&rsquo;s letter. &ldquo;It then showed a video of the coworker &mdash; Michael &mdash; saying &lsquo;I&rsquo;m so tired of all this transgender stuff.&rsquo;&rdquo; Owen was prompted to select a response. When Owen chose the response that aligned with her thoughts about the situation &mdash; that &ldquo;political correctness can be tiring&rdquo; &mdash; the module informed Owen that her opinion was not the &ldquo;best choice.&rdquo; The module then repeated itself until Owen was forced to select the university&rsquo;s preferred answer to Michael: &ldquo;You seem upset. What&rsquo;s the matter?&rdquo; FIRE&rsquo;s letter asserted that the program &ldquo;requires its participants to affirm to the university what response to questions of social and political concerns are correct according to the university&rsquo;s administration.&rdquo; <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17318"></a> <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17318"></a> <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17318">[RELATED: Louisiana introduces bill to ban teaching of Critical Race Theory topics like &#39;institutional racism&#39;]</a> On April 26, the University of Oklahoma <a href="https://www.thefire.org/university-of-oklahoma-email-to-fire-april-26-2021/">rejected</a> FIRE&rsquo;s request to make the course optional, claiming that the training &ldquo;does not impose specific ways of thinking, but instead, presents situational examples of how to engage with the broader world in a way that is understanding of all people and perspectives.&rdquo; FIRE submitted a public records <a href="https://www.thefire.org/fire-oklahoma-open-records-act-request-to-university-of-oklahoma-may-4-2021/">request</a> on May 4 to obtain the school&rsquo;s contract with EVERFI &mdash; the software vendor that produced the program &mdash; to see whether the university followed through with its promise to discuss FIRE&rsquo;s concerns with the company. University of Oklahoma Director of Media Relations Kesha Keith told&nbsp;Campus Reform that its diversity training &ldquo;does not impose specific ways of thinking, but instead, presents situational examples of how to engage with the broader world in a way that is understanding of all people and perspectives.&rdquo; University officials &ldquo;will continue to monitor its training efforts while continuing to advance the university&rsquo;s work of engaging community members in a meaningful learning experience with the goal of fostering a more inclusive campus community.&rdquo; Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ajmunguia23">@ajmunguia23</a>

The University of Oklahoma rejected FIRE's request to make its mandatory diversity training optional.

U of Oklahoma refuses to revise mandatory training that makes students agree with transgender ideology

The University of Michigan will not be removing conservative Regent Ron Weiser&rsquo;s name after backlash and condemnation over his comments directed at Democratic state leadership.Announcing on June 3 in a <a href="https://publicaffairs.vpcomm.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2021/06/Response-on-Weiser-Hall.pdf">statement</a>, President Mark Schissel joined in &ldquo;condemnation of Regent Weiser&rsquo;s misogynistic and violent comments against elected state officials,&rdquo; but will not petition the Board of Regents to &ldquo;change the name of Weiser Hall.&rdquo;&nbsp;Weiser currently chairs the Michigan Republican Party, serves as a UM Regent, and is a longtime donor of the university.&nbsp;Campus Reform&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17466">reported</a>&nbsp;on May 27 that Weiser called Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Attorney General Dana Nessel &ldquo;witches,&rdquo; and suggested that they be burned at the stake.&ldquo;I made the decision to continue to serve, to make sure we have an opportunity to take out those three witches in two years from now,&rdquo; Weiser said at a North Oakland Republican Club meeting on March 26. &ldquo;Our job now is to soften up those three witches and make sure that when we have good candidates to run against them, that they are ready for the burning at the stake.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17466">[RELATED:&nbsp;&lsquo;I will not be canceled&rsquo;: Conservative regent fights back after censure vote from UMich]</a>Wesier apologized for his comments and was <a href="https://record.umich.edu/articles/board-votes-to-censure-regent-ron-weiser/">censured</a> by the board on April 2.&nbsp;Schlissel pointed to the importance of free speech and the reality of the gift agreement made between the Weiser family and the university as an inability to rename Weiser Hall.&nbsp;&ldquo;One bedrock principle is free speech, which we must uphold even when we find&nbsp;speech offensive,&rdquo; Schlissel said. &ldquo;While Regent Weiser&rsquo;s recent comments in no way reflect our values, he has done much good upholding democratic values as our nation&rsquo;s Ambassador to Slovakia and as a philanthropist.&rdquo;Additionally, the President shared, &ldquo;were we to decide to violate the contract and remove his name from a building, we would be obligated to return the associated gift.&rdquo;&nbsp;Michigan Attorney General <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/ag">Dana Nessel</a> and UM German studies professor <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/german/people/faculty/smwei.html">Silke-Maria Weineck</a> blasted Schissel&rsquo;s decision.&ldquo;Its ok for my alma mater to adorn the name of the man who encouraged the execution &amp; assassination of numerous elected officials of both parties on @umich buildings since being a billionaire means anything you say or do is fine,&rdquo; Nessel <a href="https://twitter.com/dananessel/status/1401094479478722560?s=20">tweeted</a> June 5.&nbsp;<blockquote>In other words, its ok for my alma mater to adorn the name of the man who encouraged the execution &amp; assassination of numerous elected officials of both parties on <a href="https://twitter.com/UMich?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@umich</a> buildings since being a billionaire means anything you say or do is fine. <a href="https://t.co/yDtSe34InW">https://t.co/yDtSe34InW</a>&mdash; Dana Nessel (@dananessel) <a href="https://twitter.com/dananessel/status/1401094479478722560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 5, 2021</a></blockquote>&ldquo;So we could get out of the gift agreement but we won&rsquo;t because we don&rsquo;t think misogyny, political violence and voter suppression are in sufficient conflict with our mission,&rdquo; professor Weineck <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2021/06/04/ron-weiser-university-of-michigan-weiser-hall-building-name-gift/7551701002/">told</a> The Detroit News. &ldquo;Just an old boy culture asserting its dominance in the face of any threat.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16940">[RELATED: UMich &lsquo;Liberation Front&rsquo; demands removal of Sabra hummus and end to Israel trips</a>]A <a href="https://www.change.org/p/u-m-regent-ron-weiser-resign-for-unacceptable-violent-rhetoric?fbclid=IwAR1Xohi79pwkYQ9AsjMbPETWCUKsIiXBKdi5KYm0uTUcBX2uiJcgK8CR0SY">petition</a> calling on the conservative Regent to resign over his March 26 comments has amassed over 7,000 signatures. &ldquo;We loudly reaffirm our demand that he resign, and we expect President Schlissel to condemn this threat to all students of color on campus,&rdquo; states the petition.&nbsp;The UM College Republicans shared their support of Regent Weiser to Campus Reform.&nbsp;&ldquo;He has been the victim of a long-winded, unfounded smear campaign spearheaded by partisan operatives. He&rsquo;s a great Regent and even better man, totally undeserving of such hostility.&rdquo;University policy on naming buildings after donors states: &ldquo;The university is committed to retaining the name of each facility, space, and street (collectively referred to in this paragraph as a &ldquo;facility&rdquo;) bearing a donor-designated name or honorific name. The name is intended to remain for the life of the facility.&rdquo;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/SergeiKelley?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@SergeiKelley</a>

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel blasted the decision to preserve the name on Twitter.

U of Michigan will not rename conservative donor’s name from building, faces backlash

University of Ottawa adjunct professor and Canadian Lawyer Naomi Sayers took to Twitter recently to endorse sex work for &ldquo;young people,&quot; calling it &ldquo;the best thing&rdquo; they can do early in their careers.<blockquote>unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is do <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SexWork?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#SexWork</a> on the side because your early career prospects will be unstable, unpredictable, low pay, likely contract work and very much exploitative. <a href="https://t.co/HRAmZFPDNX">https://t.co/HRAmZFPDNX</a>&mdash; Naomi Sayers, Lawyer (@kwetoday) <a href="https://twitter.com/kwetoday/status/1403925202245935104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 13, 2021</a></blockquote>&ldquo;unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is do #SexWork on the side because your early career prospects will be unstable, unpredictable, low pay, likely contract work and very much exploitative,&quot; Sayers wrote on Twitter Sunday. She then addressed the idea of sex work being exploitative by comparing it to capitalism.&ldquo;That&rsquo;s how capitalism works&hellip; People out here saying young people can be exploited in sex work. Literally, that&rsquo;s capitalism. Lol. And quite literally, that&rsquo;s any kind of work.&rdquo;Sayers then said capitalism, along with prisons, needed to be abolished, advocating for free education, and a living wage.&ldquo;Also, if you really want young people to not be exploited, provide them with livable wages, access to safe housing, clean water, free education. Literally. Abolish capitalism&hellip; Actually abolish prison but whatever.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17248">[RELATED: Profs argue that LGBTQ-inclusive sex education should begin early, before &lsquo;cisnormative values&#39; become &#39;more deeply ingrained&rsquo;]</a>Alex Krause, Sayers&rsquo; publicist, responded to&nbsp;Campus Reform&rsquo;s inquiry on Sayers&rsquo; behalf, insisting that she is &ldquo;IN NO WAY&rdquo; promoting sex work, but rather, was attempting to draw a correlation between it and the supposedly exploitative &ldquo;capitalist society&rdquo;.&ldquo;Naomi is IN NO WAY promoting or suggesting that anyone should pursue sex work, her point was to facetiously criticize capitalist society, to quote her initial tweet &#39;...early career prospects will be unstable, unpredictable, low pay, likely contract work and very much exploitative,&rsquo;&rdquo; Krause told&nbsp;Campus Reform.&nbsp;When asked what Sayers meant by her tweet, Krause told&nbsp;Campus Reform&nbsp;that her &ldquo;intent&rdquo; was to called out &ldquo;systemic racism&rdquo; and &ldquo;stigmatization.&quot;&ldquo;What Naomi meant is stated plainly. Yes, it is nuanced; but NO,&nbsp;she is not directly advocating for sex work. Her intent remains to call out systemic racism / stigmatization wherever it exists, and it is rampant within for-profit Canadian higher education institutions AND the prison system.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16965">[RELATED: &#39;Sex Week&#39; at Tulane University features &#39;Black Sex&#39; talk for &#39;Black students only&#39;]&nbsp;</a>&ldquo;Capitalism, for-profit education, and prison are inherently stigmatizing towards certain marginalized groups. As we noted in the previous email, Naomi&rsquo;s lived experience of stigmatization in the legal realm is telling, considering the massive investment that she made personally&nbsp;and financially to pursue a legal education.&rdquo;Krause then told&nbsp;Campus Reform&nbsp;that the interpretation of Sayers&rsquo; tweet was &ldquo;indicative&rdquo; of the problem Sayers is trying to address.&ldquo;Your interpretation of her coy, and nuanced take on exploitation of capitalism vs exploitation of sex work may be indicative of the exact issue she is trying to highlight - the quickness to stigmatize&nbsp;and/or &ldquo;slut shame&rdquo; sex work.&rdquo;Krause also explained Sayers&rsquo; critique of capitalism, insisting that it produces &ldquo;exploitative career paths.&quot;&ldquo;Capitalism has created an economy that many people leave university indebted for decades, and in turn feel pressured to work in exploitative career paths&hellip; Sex work can be exploitative, just like any other kind of work, and in fact it predates capitalist societies. Capitalism only further incentives &ldquo;have nots&rdquo;/marginalized communities to pursue whatever means they must to survive.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16832">[EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Students support college &#39;Sex Week&#39; events...but they&#39;re not so sure about their parents]</a>Campus Reform&nbsp;reached out to&nbsp;<a href="https://exoduscry.com/">Exodus Cry</a>, a non-profit organization committed to fighting back against sex work and human trafficking. Director of Intervention Helen Taylor replied calling Sayers&rsquo; comments &ldquo;deeply irresponsible.&quot;&ldquo;For Professor Sayers to flippantly encourage young vulnerable students to engage in such a harmful industry is deeply irresponsible and extremely offensive to survivors who are working hard to heal and recover from the damage prostitution inflicted on their lives,&quot; Taylor wrote.&ldquo;The sex industry is a system of violence and gender inequality. It is not a &#39;job like any other.&#39; It puts girls at higher risk daily of rape, theft and murder. It causes long-term PTSD comparable to torture victims&hellip; We believe education leaders ought to be protecting young women, and empowering them to aim high, not echoing pimp&rsquo;s advertisements for the sex trade.&rdquo;&nbsp;UPDATE:&nbsp;Sayers&rsquo; publicist contacted&nbsp;Campus Reform after publication&nbsp;and insisted Sayers has no relation with the University of Ottawa as a professor.&nbsp;When&nbsp;Campus Reform&nbsp;reached out to Sayers for an interview, she replied, &ldquo;my policy is not to answer questions from media in which the answer can be found on google&nbsp;[sic], which tweets are searchable on google now (aka do their research)&rdquo;.&nbsp;Research conducted by&nbsp;Campus Reform&nbsp;found that in Sayers <a href="https://ca.linkedin.com/in/naomisayers" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LinkedIn</a> profile, she currently touts herself as &ldquo;adjunct professor&rdquo; at the university.&nbsp;&ldquo;I teach the Colonialism, Territory &amp; Treaties at UOttawa&rsquo;s Institute of Indigenous Research and Studies&rdquo;, states her profile.&nbsp;Sayers is also designated as an adjunct professor on the&nbsp;<a href="https://opau.ca/events/advocacy-panel/">Ontario Paralegal Association</a>&nbsp;website and the website&nbsp;<a href="https://theorg.com/org/ywca-toronto/org-chart/naomi-sayers">theorg.com</a>, which lists its&nbsp;<a href="https://theorg.com/org/theorg">mission</a>&nbsp;as &quot;to make organizations more transparent.&quot;<iframe src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/512044703/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-WEjikAchiH8VcIrIbHTv"></iframe> <img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/campus.reform//17658vfxvvhImagefromiOS.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dii">Campus Reform&nbsp;contacted the University of Ottawa for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/_addisonsmith1?lang=en">@_addisonsmith1</a>

One organization committed to stopping human trafficking said that the tweet is "deeply irresponsible."

U of Ottawa professor: ‘Sex work’ is ‘the best thing young people can do early in their careers’

Amid pressure from LGBTQ activists, the U.S. Department of Justice amended a court filing stating they would &quot;vigorously&rdquo;&nbsp;defend religious school&#39;s exemption from laws which allow religious schools that are, in part, funded by the government to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals.The new filing, as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/06/09/biden-justice-lgbtq-lesbian-gay-christian-college-university-bostock-equality-act/">Washington Post&nbsp;</a>reported on Wednesday, the DOJ removed &quot;vigorously&quot; as a term to describe their approach to defending the exemption, but kept the usage of the word &quot;adequate&quot; to describe their approach.&nbsp;&quot;The Department of Justice, which is responsible for defending federal statutes in court, will adequately defend against the legal challenges the Religious Exemption and its application,&quot; the updated <a href="https://context-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/6dabb638-b538-46ee-b90c-ccd25e325b70/note/ab56eb4e-59cc-443e-9f0f-a25d9e5427f3.#page=1">filing&nbsp;</a>states.According to The Post, the move shows that the Joe Biden administration possibly exerted their force on the Department of Justice to remove the language.<a href="https://context-cdn.washingtonpost.com/notes/prod/default/documents/115fbd13-ca87-4b50-94c8-820afea69daa/note/0372d954-88c4-4fb5-9567-ac0b25e0973f.#page=1">Hunter v. the U.S. Department of Education</a>, as <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17173">Campus Reform</a> reported in March, includes 40 students who are suing the U.S. Department of Education with the goal of putting an &quot;end to the U.S. Department of Education&rsquo;s complicity in the abuses and unsafe conditions thousands of LGBTQ+ students endure at hundreds of taxpayer-funded, religious colleges and universities.&rdquo;Under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, religious education institutions are exempt from anti-discrimination laws; therefore the DOJ has to step in to defend them. However, this prevents religious institutions from entering the lawsuit themselves.&nbsp;The Council of Christian Colleges and Universities previously said in a<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/cccu-intervention-motion-filed/c8c0b51f-9f3e-4687-84a3-4d6dad0cbf7d/?itid=lk_inline_manual_20">&nbsp;May motion</a> that they could not trust the Biden administration to defend the schools&rsquo; beliefs and &ldquo;may be openly hostile to them.&rdquo;&nbsp;According to the article, Shirley Hoogstra, president of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities, said that she was relieved at the DOJ&#39;s filing, as it signals that the government will defend religious exemptions. However, she said that Christian schools that could be impacted by the lawsuit should have their own representative present during hearings.

The DOJ now characterizes its effort to stand up for religious schools as 'adequate.'

Biden's DOJ walks back intent to 'vigorously' defend religious school exemptions in  anti-LGBTQ discrimination laws 

West Virginia students identifying as &ldquo;LGBTQ+&rdquo; created their own anti-racism training.The school&rsquo;s &ldquo;LGBTQ+ Center&rdquo; sponsored the <a href="https://eberly.wvu.edu/news-events/eberly-news/2021/04/12/eberly-college-students-lead-gender-inclusivity-anti-racism-training-at-wvu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">training</a> to &ldquo;raise awareness of the intersections of race, color, sex, sexual orientation and gender identity.&rdquo;&ldquo;We are extremely thankful to the nearly 100 groups and classrooms who invited our LGBTQ+ ambassadors to talk about anti-racism and gender-inclusivity,&rdquo; said LGBTQ+ Center interim director Ellen Rodrigues about the news on April 14, &ldquo;we received outpouring support and messages of appreciation on how this discussion gave participants a new perspective about their majors and about life.&rdquo; &nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17333" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Prof tells Senate Judiciary Committee that election security laws &#39;target Black voters&#39; like &#39;Jim Crow&#39;]</a>Rodrigues told Campus Reform that in addition to receiving payment for their work, each student received $1000 from a &ldquo;grant to cover expenses towards professional development.&rdquo;West Virginia University Executive Director of Communications April Stolzenbach added that the money came from the West Virginia High Education Policy Commission, which <a href="https://www.wvhepc.edu/news/higher-education-systems-award-85000-in-grants-to-strengthen-diversity-initiatives-on-college-campuses-in-west-virginia/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announced</a> in September that it awarded $85,000 in total grants to &ldquo;strengthen diversity initiatives on college campuses in West Virginia.&rdquo;The training <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gjpsmjb3Pj-TNFNmd3B3PIVCbwqY1lCez1K--TVtJ80/edit" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">encompasses</a> several books, articles, videos, podcasts, and other resources related to anti-racism and &ldquo;gender-inclusivity.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17313" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Democratic Socialists at AOC&rsquo;s alma mater are still protesting for free laundry]</a>One recommended resource is an article titled, <a href="https://nationalseedproject.org/Key-SEED-Texts/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&quot;White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,&rdquo;</a> in which author Peggy McIntosh, says that she is bothered by &ldquo;men&rsquo;s unwillingness to grant that they are over-privileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged&rdquo; in her women&rsquo;s studies work.&nbsp;&ldquo;They may say they will work to improve women&rsquo;s status, in the society, the university, or the curriculum,&quot; she said, &quot;but they can&rsquo;t or won&rsquo;t support the idea of lessening men&rsquo;s.&rdquo;&ldquo;I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So, I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege,&rdquo; she continued. &ldquo;I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was &lsquo;meant&rsquo; to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.&rdquo;<a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=17316" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Rutgers students provided with &#39;trigger&#39; warnings in Classics and history courses]</a>The students also recommended <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/color-blindness-is-counterproductive/405037/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&ldquo;Color-Blindness Is Counterproductive&rdquo;</a> by Harvey Wingfield of The Atlantic.&ldquo;How many times have you heard someone say that they &lsquo;don&rsquo;t see color,&rsquo; &lsquo;are colorblind,&rsquo; or &lsquo;don&rsquo;t have a racist bone in their body?&rsquo;&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;Maybe you&rsquo;ve even said this yourself. After all, the dominant language around racial issues today is typically one of colorblindness, as it&rsquo;s often meant to convey distaste for racial practices and attitudes common in an earlier era.&rdquo;Wingfield says that &ldquo;many sociologists, though, are extremely critical of colorblindness as an ideology,&rdquo; since &ldquo;the mechanisms that reproduce racial inequality have become more covert and obscure than they were during the era of open, legal segregation, the language of explicit racism has given way to a discourse of colorblindness.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17256" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UVA students scrap gendered pronouns from constitution]</a>&ldquo;But they fear that the refusal to take public note of race actually allows people to ignore manifestations of persistent discrimination,&rdquo; she continues.Another <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/white-fragility-definition" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">article</a> in Medical News Today &mdash; which was &ldquo;medically reviewed&rdquo; by physician Timothy Legg &mdash; tells students &ldquo;Everything you need to know about white fragility.&rdquo;&ldquo;White fragility refers to feelings of discomfort a white person experiences when they witness discussions around racial inequality and injustice,&rdquo; wrote author Jessica Caporuscio. &ldquo;For example, people of color may find it difficult to speak to white people about white privilege and superiority. The white person may become defensive, and the person of color may feel obligated to comfort the white person because we live in a white-dominated environment.&rdquo;<a href="http://SUNY Geneseo announces new dorm 'for Students of Color'" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED:,SUNY Geneseo announces new dorm &#39;for Students of Color&#39;]</a>&ldquo;White fragility differs from both white privilege and white supremacy,&rdquo; she explained. &ldquo;White privilege refers to the fact that white people have advantages in society that others do not. White supremacy is the belief that people with white skin are superior.&rdquo;Campus Reform reached out to West Virginia University for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.Follow <a href="https://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="color: var(--red); text-decoration: none !important; user-select: auto; font-weight: 600; font-family: Lora; font-size: 18px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" target="_blank">Ben Zeisloft</a> on Twitter

The state’s higher education commission funded the students’ work.

WVU paid LGBTQ+ students to make their own intersectionality training

Two researchers at Montclair State University claim that &ldquo;LGBTQ-inclusive&rdquo; sex education should begin in elementary school.<a href="https://www.montclair.edu/profilepages/view_profile.php?username=goldfarbe" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.montclair.edu/profilepages/view_profile.php?username=goldfarbe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.montclair.edu/profilepages/view_profile.php?username=goldfarbe" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Eva Goldfarb</a> and <a href="https://www.montclair.edu/profilepages/view_profile.php?username=liebermanl" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lisa Lieberman</a> of Montclair State University examined studies on sexual education ranging from grade school to twelfth grade. They <a href="https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S1054139X20304560?token=EFFEDF8194204F8C3F570446CC91ABEDA121EE357F8C7F4FAC9FFC047BF1078BDE8485C88152E99F3A25B7CF662F108D" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">found</a> that &ldquo;substantial evidence supports sex education beginning in elementary school, that is scaffolded and of longer duration, as well as LGBTQ-inclusive education across the school curriculum and a social justice approach to healthy sexuality.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16402" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16402" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16402" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: LGBT advocates want potential Biden admin to threaten Christian college accreditation]</a> The researchers examined several studies that involved preschool classrooms. According to the researchers, one indicates that &ldquo;young children are, in fact, quite capable of understanding and discussing issues related to gender diversity, including gender expectations, gender nonconformity, and gender-based oppression.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09575146.2015.1104899" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Another</a> shows that &ldquo;4-year-olds expressed an inclusive understanding of marriage and a social justice stance on LGBTQ rights.&rdquo; After their review of 218 scholarly articles, the researchers concluded that there exists &ldquo;substantial evidence that sexuality education is most effective when begun early and before sexual activity begins.&rdquo; &ldquo;This review suggests that not only are younger children able to discuss sexuality-related issues but that the early grades may, in fact, be the best time to introduce topics related to sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, gender equality, and social justice related to the LGBTQ community before hetero- and cisnormative values and assumptions become more deeply ingrained and less mutable,&rdquo; said the study&rsquo;s conclusion.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16773" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16773" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16773" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Baylor students want Christian lecturer fired after she questioned Biden&#39;s transgender policies]</a> Likewise, the authors found evidence that beginning sexuality education early would promote &ldquo;a more accepting and welcoming environment for sexual minority youth.&rdquo; They also suggest additional research on &ldquo;expanding social justice pedagogy within the sex education curriculum beyond the topics of gender and sexual orientation.&rdquo; Campus Reform reached out to Goldfarb and Lieberman for comment; this article will be updated accordingly. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

Their literature review concludes that the early grades may be the best time to introduce sexual orientation, gender equality, and social justice “before hetero- and cisnormative values and assumptions become more deeply ingrained.”

Profs argue that LGBTQ-inclusive sex education should begin early, before ‘cisnormative values' become 'more deeply ingrained’

Students at Christian universities identifying as homosexual and transgender are suing the Department of Education to end the religious exemption in Title IX, which would make some Christian universities ineligible to receive federal funding. Thirty-three students are listed as plaintiffs in a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/dozens-of-christian-students-sue-the-u-s-education-dept-hoping-to-pressure-equality-act-negotiations/0d8ff1eb-ee01-4d09-a6ca-30b1c617bebb/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">lawsuit</a> against the United States Department of Education filed in the District of Oregon&rsquo;s Eugene Division. The suit &mdash; written by Paul Southwick of the <a href="https://www.thereap.org/about-us" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Religious Exemption Accountability Project</a> &mdash; states that it is seeking to &ldquo;put an end to the U.S. Department of Education&rsquo;s complicity in the abuses and unsafe conditions thousands of LGBTQ+ students endure at hundreds of taxpayer-funded, religious colleges and universities.&rdquo; &quot;The Plaintiffs seek safety and justice for themselves and for the countless sexual and gender minority students whose oppression, fueled by government funding, and unrestrained by government intervention, persists with injurious consequences to mind, body and soul,&rdquo; said the suit&rsquo;s introduction. &ldquo;When taxpayer-funded religious institutions require sexual and gender minority students to hide their identity out of fear, or to behave contrary to their fundamental sexual or gender identity, the unsurprising consequences are intense pain, loneliness and self-harm.&rdquo; Current and former students of Liberty University in Virginia, Baylor University in Texas, Cedarville University in Ohio, Oklahoma Baptist University, Messiah University in Pennsylvania, and other institutions recounted their experiences as LGBTQ+ students.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16402" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16402" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16402" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: LGBT advocates want potential Biden admin to threaten Christian college accreditation]</a> For instance, Mackenzie McCann &mdash; a former Liberty University student who identifies as &ldquo;queer&rdquo; and &ldquo;non-binary&rdquo; &mdash; said in the lawsuit that the school has a reputation for conservative beliefs. As the suit mentions, Liberty&rsquo;s student conduct guide<a href="https://www.liberty.edu/media/1216/2019%2008%2019-20%20LUO%20Honor%20Code%20(002).pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;states</a> that &ldquo;sexual relations outside of a biblically-ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural-born woman are not permissible at Liberty University.&rdquo; &ldquo;Students at Liberty behave in homophobic and anti-queer ways because they know they can do so with relative impunity,&rdquo; said McCann. &ldquo;Liberty&rsquo;s culture enables such conduct and makes students feel like Liberty is backing them.&rdquo; McCann left the school after one semester for her &ldquo;emotional safety.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16999" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16999" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a> <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16999" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Top scientific journal pushes diversity litmus test for would-be authors]</a> Jake Picker &mdash; a pre-med student at Baylor University who identifies as a &ldquo;bisexual man&rdquo; &mdash; said in the lawsuit that &ldquo;Baylor has made its LGBTQ+ students feel like they are less than and undesirable.&rdquo; The suit acknowledges that Baylor students are expected to not participate in groups that &ldquo;promote understandings of human sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching.&rdquo; Southwick told Campus Reform that &ldquo;some of the plaintiffs were not aware of the schools&#39; policies at the time they applied,&rdquo; while &ldquo;others were aware but were initially told that their attendance would not be an issue.&rdquo; Southwick insisted that his group is &ldquo;not trying to defund these universities,&rdquo; but wants them to keep existing. Bob Jones University Chief of Staff Randy Page told Campus Reform that the university &ldquo;believes all persons have inherent dignity and should thus be treated with kindness and respect.&rdquo; &quot;BJU exercises its legally guaranteed religious freedom in a manner that upholds and reflects this bedrock principle,&rdquo; said Page. &ldquo;Faith-based colleges and universities are an indispensable part of America&rsquo;s diverse higher education picture. This lawsuit is an effort to erase religious schools from the scene by denying financially disadvantaged students the ability to attend the college of their choice.&rdquo; &ldquo;It&rsquo;s a misguided attempt to discard a congressional enactment consistently respected and enforced by every presidential administration &mdash; both Democratic and Republican &mdash; for over four decades,&rdquo; he added. &ldquo;BJU intends to vigorously protect its interests and encourages the Biden administration to fulfill its duty to defend a law that reflects the best traditions of American liberty.&rdquo; The lawsuit comes weeks after the House of Representatives passed the Equality Act &mdash; a piece of legislation which seeks to &ldquo;prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation&rdquo; by providing the &ldquo;full range of remedies available under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.&rdquo; <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article?id=16922" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: US House passes &#39;Equality Act.&#39; Religious conservatives warn it&#39;s &#39;conscience-crushing.&#39;]</a> As Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel Greg Baylor and other conservative legal scholars told Campus Reform in February, the law &ldquo;threatens to strip religious institutions of their religious identity by forcing them to violate their beliefs.&rdquo; Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/BenZeisloft" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@BenZeisloft</a>

The lawsuit comes weeks after the House of Representatives passed the Equality Act — legislation which threatens to violate the consciences of religious colleges.

LGBTQ+ students sue Dept of Ed to defund their own Christian universities

The University of Miami announced it will be open a living learning community for LGBTQ and allied students. The housing community, known as the Gender and Sexuality Studies Living Learning Community (GSS LLC), was created in a partnership among the LGBTQ Student Center, the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, and Housing and Residential Life. It will be located in <a href="https://hrl.studentaffairs.miami.edu/living-on-campus/our-residential-communities/mahoney-res-college/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Mahoney Residential College</a>, which was an all-male residence hall from 1958 until the early 1970&rsquo;s when it was then converted into a co-ed facility. According to the Miami Hurricane,&nbsp;the <a href="https://www.themiamihurricane.com/2021/03/01/an-lgbtq-living-learning-community-will-house-its-first-residents-next-fall/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">goal</a> for the center is to house 20 to 25 students in its pilot year, all of whom will be taking required courses within the gender and sexualities department. The courses will be taught in the residential college. The University of Miami LGBTQ Student Center made the announcement on Twitter on February 17. Applications for the living-learning community were due on February 25.&nbsp; <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=16700" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Black Student Union demands segregated safe spaces &#39;on and off campus&#39;]</a><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Hey Canes! If you are interested in joining our pilot LLC program, please register by February 25th at <a href="https://t.co/2mdlqMR6bW" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://t.co/2mdlqMR6bW</a>! <a href="https://t.co/waIIZo6NRp" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">pic.twitter.com/waIIZo6NRp</a>&mdash; UM LGBTQ Center (@umlgbtq) <a href="https://twitter.com/umlgbtq/status/1362133332243353602?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2021</a></blockquote>According to the tweet, students who are interested in participating are required to commit to one year of living in the residential college. Students are also required to &ldquo;get involved in great community service projects&rdquo; and &ldquo;participate in amazing events and programs planned just for your community.&rdquo; The LGBTQ Student Center also points out that the LLC is &ldquo;open to all residential students.&rdquo; Randy Fitzgerald, a senior at the University of Miami and member of the LGBTQ community, told Campus Reform that this isn&rsquo;t his &ldquo;cup of tea.&rdquo; &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not an enthusiast of segregated housing &mdash; I didn&rsquo;t like the concept of segregating housing by gender (ie, &lsquo;male dorm&rsquo; or &lsquo;female floor&rsquo;) and I thought it was weird when I got to college and lived on a floor with only other guys,&rdquo; Fitzgerald said. The University of Miami already offers students the option to live in gender-inclusive housing, according to the <a href="https://hrl.studentaffairs.miami.edu/living-on-campus/faq/gender-inclusive-housing/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Housing and Residential Life portal</a>. <a href="https://campusreform.org/article?id=16787" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: University of Alabama-Birmingham invites &#39;White colleagues&#39; to discuss race &#39;amongst themselves&#39;]</a> However, Fitzgerald said he doesn&rsquo;t see the need to segregate housing based on gender, sexuality, or race. &ldquo;Obviously this is an option for students to opt-into, and I think it&rsquo;s an interesting idea to allow this option for people interested in this,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But just as I wouldn&rsquo;t have opted into a &lsquo;white&rsquo; dorm, I wouldn&rsquo;t opt into housing based on sexual identity &mdash; both are identities that I was born with, but I don&rsquo;t need to be exclusionary about them.&rdquo; Other colleges and universities have offered similar living options for their students, including <a href="https://www.kent.edu/housing/lgbtq-living-learning-community" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kent State University</a>, the <a href="https://www.umw.edu/residencelife/on-campus/life/tlcs/lgbt-learning-community/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">University of Mary Washington</a>, and <a href="https://lgbtq.wwu.edu/gender-inclusive-housing/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Western Washington University</a>, to name a few. Last semester, the <a href="https://www.alligator.org/article/2020/10/lgbt-focused-living-learning-community-coming-to-uf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">University of Florida</a> announced its first gender-neutral housing options for the upcoming fall semester. Campus Reform reached out to the University of Miami and the University of Miami LGBTQ Student Center for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication. Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/opheliejacobson" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@opheliejacobson</a>

The living area will open during the 2021-2022 academic year. 

University of Miami opens new campus housing 'for LGBTQIA+ students'

St. Olaf College in Minnesota plans to host three virtual graduation ceremonies for different groups of minority students, while others must wait until next year to celebrate their completion of college.&ldquo;Self-identified domestic students of color, international students and LGBTQIA+ students&rdquo; at the Minnesota school will receive their own virtual graduation ceremonies at the conclusion of this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, per an administrative email. Meanwhile, graduation for the rest of the class of 2020 has been &ldquo;rescheduled for a date in late May/early June of 2021,&rdquo; according to the school&#39;s&nbsp;<a href="https://wp.stolaf.edu/commencement/schedule-of-events/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">website</a>.&nbsp;The three virtual graduation ceremonies for students in minority groups were announced by and will be hosted through the Taylor Center for Equity and Inclusion. This project of the school exists to help &ldquo;students of color,&quot; &ldquo;LBGTQIA+&rdquo; and international students &ldquo;celebrate&rdquo; their &ldquo;awesomeness factor,&rdquo; per the center&rsquo;s <a href="https://wp.stolaf.edu/taylorcenter/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">website</a>.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14573" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Harvard 2020 class will graduate &#39;online&#39;]</a>The center announced its intent to host the online graduation ceremonies via email, Friday.&nbsp;&ldquo;This event acknowledges the value and uniqueness of students&rsquo; experience and serves to commemorate and highlight the accomplishments of individuals within their familial and cultural context,&rdquo; reads the email.The three graduations are called the multicultural, international, and lavender graduations and are intended for American students of color, international students, and &ldquo;LGBTQIA+&rdquo; students, respectively.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=14729" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: Class of 2020 to return to campus for graduation...in 2021]</a>Campus Reform spoke to multiple graduating seniors at St. Olaf, none of whom said they&rsquo;ve been informed of any online ceremony for the general student body.&nbsp;Associate Director of Communications <a href="https://wp.stolaf.edu/communications/contact-us/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kari VanDerVeen</a> told Campus Reform that the school is &ldquo;exploring a number of ways to celebrate the Class of 2020,&rdquo; but that plans were not yet &ldquo;finalized.&rdquo; The school website also makes no mention of such an event.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://twitter.com/KyleHooten2" style="text-decoration:none;">@KyleHooten2</a>

Graduation canceled...except for 'students of color' and 'LGBTQIA+' students

The Pride Center at Oregon State University called for Veteran Student Association (VSA) members to be barred from moving into an on-campus student lounge, stating that it is concerned about the veteran students&rsquo; &ldquo;patriotism&rdquo; and the &ldquo;wellbeing&rdquo; of students.In a since-deleted open letter to the OSU community posted on <a href="https://archive.is/vG54o" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> on March 15, the pride center and the LGBTQ+ Multicultural Support Network said that they oppose moving the VSA into the Student Experience Center Involvement Lounge on campus.The involvement lounge is a space for students to find out how to get involved on campus, according to its <a href="https://experience.oregonstate.edu/resources/involvement-lounge" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">webpage</a>.The Pride Center, which is an entity of the Department of Diversity and Cultural Engagement, stated that their members would be &ldquo;vulnerable&rdquo; to the consequences of deciding to let the vet group occupy that space.&ldquo;The communities that our organizations serve are vulnerable to the ideological and practical consequences that this decision would bring about,&rdquo; the Pride Center and LGBTQ group stated.Specifically, the groups cite President Donald Trump&rsquo;s ban on transgender individuals from serving in the military as part of their reasoning for this move.<img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/12006/15532693031851.jpg" style="width: 400px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">&ldquo;This push to curb the rights of transgender people to participate as fully as they desire in US society has caused much distress throughout the LGBTQ+ community,&rdquo; the groups said. &ldquo;We are disheartened to think that our community, which has historically fought to be recognized fully as human beings, [is] being forced to continue this fight.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9646" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Social justice warriors want universities to &lsquo;ban veterans&rsquo;]</a>However, Trump&rsquo;s policies weren&rsquo;t the only reason for the organizations&rsquo; statement.The Pride Center and LGBTQ+ group also explain that they are concerned with the &ldquo;particular type of American patriotism that would be promoted by centralizing the Veteran Students Association in the [Student Experience Center].&rdquo;&ldquo;We aim to resist the pain that US militarism has caused our siblings in struggle, and we denounce the glorification of the system that is responsible for this violence,&rdquo; the center stated.The groups say that the letter is not supposed to be an attack on veterans but note that the &ldquo;campus LGBTQ+ community is built on legacies of justice that oppose military intervention and war.&rdquo;They conclude their open letter by stating that the student veterans are deserving of a space, but putting them in a spot on the center of campus &ldquo;jeopardizes the wellbeing of many vulnerable students, including those [who are] a part of the LGBTQ+ community.&rdquo;The College Republicans President at OSU, Peter Halajian, told Campus Reform that he cannot see how this is not an attack on veterans, and argued that nobody cares where the VSA office is located. He called the letter &ldquo;disgusting,&rdquo; &ldquo;shameful,&rdquo; and &ldquo;hypocritical.&rdquo;&ldquo;It&#39;s simply the reasoning given that is a disgusting attack. Furthermore, no one is forcing the Pride Center to be in favor of any war; past, present, or future! The fact that the mere sight of veterans services on campus is disturbing to them is just plain sad,&rdquo; Halajian said. &ldquo;The Pride Center can&#39;t on the one hand claim to support veterans well-being (or support LGBT+ veterans at all for that matter) and then be against a conveniently located center for them to get the services and support that they need.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11395" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Student charged for allegedly making false anti-LGBT threats against herself]</a>The Pride Center deleted the above post on Thursday and made a follow-up statement.&quot;We have [deleted the post] because the open letter was written by and represents the views of individual students,&quot; the group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/OSUPrideCenter/posts/10156546831549862" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a>. &quot;While Pride Center and SOL student staff have the right to make statements as individuals on issues that are important to them, the posting of this open letter violated our communication policy.&quot;<img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/campusreform/12006/Screenshot_(741)_(1).jpg" style="width: 500px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">&quot;We recognize the statement has been a source of pain for many individuals,&quot; the Pride Center continued. &quot;We welcome and support our veterans. And we share with you that the Pride Center assistant director is working with the Military and Veteran Resources advis[e]r to create healing spaces for those who are hurting.&quot;Campus Reform reached out to Oregon State University for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/asabes10" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">@asabes10</a>

The Pride Center has since deleted the post.

LGBTQ groups: Student vets 'jeopardize' well-being of students

The University of California-Santa Barbara is seeking a new LGBTQ program coordinator to organize &ldquo;identity-based programs.&rdquo; UCSB&#39;s job <a href="https://www.higheredjobs.com/search/details.cfm?JobCode=176898611&Title=LGBTQ%20Program%20Coordinator" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">listing</a> offers up to $57,000 annually, on an hourly basis, for an individual who will be expected to &ldquo;create an inclusive environment&rdquo; for &ldquo;underrepresented, underserved, and marginalized students,&rdquo; including LGBT students, students of color, and students who &ldquo;identify with intersections of multiple identities,&quot; as well as to serve as an &nbsp;&ldquo;advocate for students who identify as LGBTQIA&rdquo; &nbsp;to the university staff. The chosen applicant will be <a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/lgbtq-program-coordinator-uc-santa-barbara-JV_IC1147473_KO0,25_KE26,42.htm?jl=3085112423&utm_campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">responsible for</a> developing, implementing, and overseeing programming aimed at addressing political, social, emotional, and physical &ldquo;trends and needs in the LGBTQIA community,&rdquo; as well as creating marketing strategies to spread awareness for the university&rsquo;s LGBT Center.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10616" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UCSB students demand more resources for illegal immigrants]</a> In addition to managing such strategies, the coordinator will serve as a mentor to student groups that &ldquo;focus on LGBTQIA identities, serving as an &ldquo;advocate for students who identify as LGBTQIA&rdquo; &nbsp;to university staff. He or she will also be responsible for providing &ldquo;transactional advising&rdquo; to students participating in larger campus organizations and student government. UCSB&#39;s LGBTQ program coordinator will also be required to recruit and train a team of student volunteers to represent the LGBTQIA university population in order to &ldquo;ensure timely response to campus activism and outreach.&rdquo; Campus Reform reached out to the university for comment, but did not receive a response in time for press.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=8449" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[RELATED: UCSB student called &#39;fascist&#39; for questioning aid to illegals]</a>UC-Santa Barbara has a history of catering to the LGBT community. As Campus Reform reported, in January 2016, the school <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7154" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">used student fees&nbsp;</a>to host a book discussion on &nbsp;&quot;the anti-fat stigma that persists in American culture,&quot; specifically for &quot;fat, gay men.&quot; And, in September 2015, the school <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=6811" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">released</a> a &quot;Homosexuality and Religion&quot; guide that said the Bible objects to members of the LGBT &nbsp;community having equal rights, but that religion shouldn&#39;t get in the way of people&#39;s sex lives.&nbsp;It&#39;s also not the first time that colleges have devoted resources specifically to programs or jobs for LGBT individuals. In August 2017, the University of Wisconsin-Madison <a href="https://wwwt.campusreform.org/?ID=9532" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">announced</a> that it was hiring for someone with &quot;relevant experience working in student organizing and activism around LGBT issues, multiculturalism and social justice in a higher education setting.&quot; Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/celinedryan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@celinedryan</a>

The University of California-Santa Barbara is seeking an LGBTQ program coordinator.

Here's how much UC-Santa Barbara is willing to pay an LGBTQ 'advocate'

Harvard University will hire a paid fellow to assist with outreach to the LGBT community in the spring 2019 semester.The decision comes after years of requests by student groups to allocate more resources to making LGBT students feel more welcome on campus, <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/12/14/gsas-bgltq-fellow/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">according to The Harvard Crimson</a>. Harvard has not yet disclosed the &ldquo;BGLTQ&rdquo; fellowship&rsquo;s salary.Harvard&rsquo;s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences made the choice to hire such a fellow following the decisions of other prestigious American institutions, including, <a href="https://ocs.yale.edu/career-resource/yale-lgbt-studies-research" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Yale</a>, <a href="https://www.brown.edu/academics/gradschool/diversity-0" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Brown</a>, <a href="https://shass.mit.edu/academics/graduate/diversity-predoc" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">MIT</a>, and&nbsp;<a href="https://gradschool.princeton.edu/diversity/student-resources/diversity-fellows-program" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Princeton</a>, to hire fellows with similar objectives.&nbsp;An LGBTQ <a href="https://gsas.harvard.edu/student-life/harvard-resources/lgbtqgsas" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">student group</a> at the graduate school advocated for the recruitment of the fellow.&ldquo;Year after year, we have been telling administrators <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/8j8vh0pjl6t301f/OpenLetterToGSAS.pdf?dl=0" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">that LGBTQ people need better supports</a>,&rdquo; LGBTQ@GSAS asserted in a <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vuT62JnpKwWnxp3CpJ0YVJPTCBBMJ7nuhpUaSlbMvCY/edit?fbclid=IwAR3iiKtiFsYuu_e2eOHEgXihIa7zDx82x2ZDJ1V0GyabVKR_DBxWJreXpNI" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">statement</a> posted to its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=LGBTQ%40GSAS&epa=SEARCH_BOX" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">Facebook page</a> in April. &ldquo;Among other things, we have been requesting that Harvard fund a staff person to address the needs of the LGBTQ+ community, as other universities do as a matter of course. Every year they refuse, claiming a flat budget.&rdquo;&nbsp;<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11259" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: DOJ not buying Harvard&rsquo;s defense in affirmative action case]</a>&ldquo;The Office for Diversity and Minority Affairs offers some monetary support to LGBTQ@GSAS, a model which relies on unpaid, volunteer student labor and initiative, and costs a fraction of what a full-time position for a staff person would,&rdquo; the group continued.In April, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences&rsquo; Office of Diversity and Minority Affairs hired its first two paid &ldquo;diversity fellows,&quot; <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2018/4/13/gsas-2018-diversity-fellows/" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">The Crimson</a> reported. Ph.D. students Alyssa M. Hernandez and Alfredo M. Valencia, who currently serve in these capacities, applied for the positions as a way &ldquo;to make underrepresented minorities feel more welcome on Harvard&rsquo;s campus.&rdquo;Hernandez and Valencia also indicated, after speaking with prospective students at several visiting events, that they would focus on the sense of &ldquo;imposter syndrome&rdquo; associated with admission to Harvard as a minority.&nbsp;&ldquo;There&rsquo;s such a reputation, and it&rsquo;s intimidating,&rdquo; Hernandez told The Crimson. &ldquo;Graduate students talk a lot about impostor syndrome and feeling like they didn&rsquo;t deserve to get in. We want to make Harvard more welcoming to students of color.&rdquo;&nbsp;He also indicated that the addition of a third diversity fellow will help GSAS &ldquo;better serve&rdquo; LGBTQ students.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11600" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration:none;" target="_blank">[RELATED: Harvard gets hammered with lawsuits over &lsquo;sexist&rsquo; same-sex club policy]</a>Harvard did not respond to a request for comment regarding the salary of the LGBT fellow position or the two diversity fellow positions currently filled by Hernandez and Valencia. But Harvard fellows are typically paid &ldquo;between $55,000 and $70,000 per year depending on experience and the nature of each Fellowship assignment,&rdquo; according to the school&rsquo;s human resources <a href="https://hr.harvard.edu/faq/what-salary-range-fellowships" style="text-decoration:none;">site</a>.The page also states that &ldquo;fellowships are eligible for the Harvard University benefits package and this includes vacation time and available health, vision, and dental insurance.&rdquo;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/YoungGaGOP" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@YoungGaGOP</a>

Harvard hires to 'address needs of the LGBTQ+ community'

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is hosting an event aimed at &ldquo;white identifying LGBTQ+ folks.&rdquo;The University of Wisconsin-Madison is hosting an <a href="http://today.wisc.edu/events/view/129858" style="text-decoration:none;">event</a> on Nov. 28, titled, &quot;Whiteness in Queer Spaces,&rdquo; inviting students to a &ldquo;discussion on whiteness in LGBTQ+ spaces and community.&rdquo; The Gender and Campus Sexuality Center is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/uwgscc/photos/gm.350655132348688/10156383597148283/?type=3&theater" style="text-decoration:none;">sponsoring</a> the event.&ldquo;This is an intended&nbsp;[sic] for space, meaning intended for white identifying LGBTQ+ folks to address and discuss their role in oppressive whiteness in queer spaces, community, and beyond,&rdquo; the event description reads.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11157" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: Prof calls on art teachers to reject &lsquo;geometry of whiteness&rsquo;]</a>&ldquo;We make programming about race and ethnicity available to all students because research shows that students of color here report a less favorable experience (for example, being more likely to experience harassing or hostile behavior) than white students,&rdquo; UW Madison spokeswoman Meredith McGlone told Campus Reform. &ldquo;Our goal is for all students to feel welcome and able to thrive.&rdquo; &nbsp; &ldquo;We do not discriminate based on race, gender or other characteristics &ndash; events are always open to anyone who wishes to attend,&rdquo; McGlone added.UW Madison renamed its LGBT Center the &ldquo;Gender and Sexuality Campus Center&rdquo; to include students who identify with labels outside of the four included in LGBT.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10989" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: UW-Madison renames &lsquo;LGBT Center&rsquo; to avoid &lsquo;binaries&rsquo;]</a>A March 2018 study <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10614" style="text-decoration:none;">conducted</a> by Campus Reform found that 95 percent of student fees going toward partisan student organizations at UW Madison went to groups of a left-leaning perspective.Follow the author of this article on Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/knelson1776" style="text-decoration:none;">@knelson1776</a>

UW Madison hosts event for 'white identifying LGBTQ+ folks'

The University of Kentucky (UK) Office of LGBTQ* Resources is handing out thousands of dollars in scholarships and grants to promote &ldquo;LGBTQ*-focused research.&rdquo;According to a <a href="https://uknow.uky.edu/student-and-academic-life/students-benefit-lgbtq-resources-scholarships-grants/" style="text-decoration:none;">press release</a> issued last week, the department awarded $16,000 in scholarships to 10 undergraduate students, and disbursed another $3,000 in research grants to three graduate and professional students.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=10435" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: University to spend $28k on renovations for new LGBTQ Center]</a>Lance Poston, director of LGBTQ* Resources at UK, touted the &ldquo;important roles&rdquo; the awards play in helping to &ldquo;support students who are working hard to achieve their academic goals despite unique identity-related obstacles.&rdquo; &nbsp;Poston also asserted that the grants have the potential to benefit the university by &ldquo;highlighting young LGBTQ*-focused research that has the potential to positively impact our campus and communities far beyond.&rdquo;According to the press release, the scholarships are funded by&nbsp;a private endowment, supplemented by money from&nbsp;a December 2017 &ldquo;UK Feast on Equality&rdquo; fundraiser. This year, six undergraduate students received $2,000 scholarships, and four others received $1,000.While this marks the third year that the scholarships have been available, it is only the second time that UK has offered research grants, which the school says &ldquo;were made possible by a partnership between the Office of LGBTQ* Resources and UK&rsquo;s Graduate School and Center for Graduate and Professional Diversity Initiatives.&rdquo;Three graduate students were awarded $1,000 each to conduct &ldquo;LGBTQ*-focused&rdquo; research, which the school briefly describes in its press release.<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9487" style="text-decoration:none;">[RELATED: College offers $25K scholarships for &#39;LGBTQ advocates&#39;]</a>One student, for instance, is working on a dissertation&nbsp;titled&nbsp;&ldquo;No Longer Transparent: Working with Transgender Parents in Kentucky to Foster Social Change,&rdquo; which is intended to focus on &ldquo;the experiences of parents who identify as transgender to broaden limited cultural understandings of parenthood.&rdquo;Another grant recipient is working with a UK professor to examine &ldquo;identity-based socialization (e.g., how to talk to your child about sexual identity); conceptual grief and ambiguous loss; intended parenthood and family formation; and adoption and foster care outcomes.&rdquo;Based on that research, the student plans to devise a &ldquo;Future Parent Grief Scale for LGBTQ+ Individuals.&rdquo;The last recipient is conducting research into&nbsp;the &ldquo;Influence of Positive Identity Narratives on the Well-being of Transgender Kentuckians,&rdquo; which will use &ldquo;real strengths-based narratives from transgender individuals to cultivate positive identity development in transgender people.&rdquo;Follow the author of this article on Twitter:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.twitter.com/celinedryan" style="text-decoration:none;">@celinedryan</a>

The University of Kentucky recently handed out nearly $20,000 in scholarships and research grants for LGBTQ students to help them overcome "identity-related obstacles" and produce "LGBTQ*-focused research."

University awards grants for ‘LGBTQ*-focused’ research

Ferris State University is spending $28,000 to renovate space for a new LGBTQ center that is slated to be finished by mid-February.
LGBTQ Coordinator Kendree Berg told the <a href="http://fsutorch.com/2018/01/19/taking-strides/">the FSU Torch</a> that the project &ldquo;has been in the works for a very long time,&rdquo; and may even have begun before she began attending the institution as a student in 2010.
<a href="../?ID=10212">[RELATED: Admin slams 'homonormative whiteness' of LGBTQ Centers]</a>
&ldquo;It was written into the diversity plan by Dr. Pilgrim in the diversity committee a few years ago,&rdquo; she told the publication. &ldquo;More recently, students have been doing a really good job of continuing to advocate for this center and making sure that the university knows that this is a priority and that it needs to happen now.&rdquo;
Berg explained that the center will always have someone &ldquo;to greet students, to answer their questions,&rdquo; and to &ldquo;listen to them if they have something they need to talk about.
&ldquo;But really,&rdquo; Berg continued, &ldquo;it&rsquo;s just a place where we can host events where our students organizations can meet if they want to and where people can hang out and meet other people like them and just feel really comfortable and safe in that environment.&rdquo;
A university spokesperson told Campus Reform that the new center will occupy an existing space in on campus, but that renovation is estimated to cost the school tens of thousands of dollars.
&ldquo;The new LGBTQ Center at Ferris State University will be housed in existing space in Ferris&rsquo; University Center where other student organizations and services are housed,&rdquo; the school official said. &ldquo;The estimated renovation cost is $28,000.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=9190">[RELATED: Berkeley student fees fund $2.7M gender-neutral locker room]</a>
In <a href="http://fsutorch.com/2018/01/19/student-to-staff/">another interview</a> with the school&rsquo;s newspaper, Berg stressed that the university as a whole &ldquo;does a really great job of accommodating LGBTQ students&rdquo; and that the overall goal is &ldquo;making sure that we have everything in writing and that we promise to follow through on certain things.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re really talking about making sure that our students know about our preferred name policy, making sure that we are supporting our LGBTQ athletes, making sure that we are supporting our students in the housing environment, and making sure that our classrooms are really inclusive,&rdquo; she explained.
Follow this author on Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/vladimirovnikitav">Nikita Vladimirov</a>

University to spend $28k on renovations for new LGBTQ Center

Despite being designed as &ldquo;inclusive&rdquo; spaces, one university administrator claims that many campus LGBTQ Centers are bastions of &ldquo;homonormative whiteness.&rdquo;
In an <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19361653.2017.1395307">academic journal article</a> published Monday, Assistant Director of LGBTQIA Programs &amp; Services at the University of Missouri-Kansas City <a href="https://info.umkc.edu/lgbt/sample-page/staff/">Jonathan T. Pryor</a> argues that LGBTQ students feel marginalized on his campus, even in spaces designed to support them, such as Greek Life and the school&rsquo;s LGBTQ Center.
Such students feel marginalized, Pryor says, because those institutions intrinsically perpetuate &ldquo;homonormative whiteness&rdquo; by &ldquo;upholding power for White, Christian, able-bodied, and middle-class people.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=10005">[RELATED: Prof says algebra, geometry perpetuate white privilege]</a>
After interviewing eight LGBTQ students, Pryor learned that Greek Life was a source of particular consternation, noting that the presence of Greek Life flags in the student center and the proximity of Greek houses to campus made some students especially uncomfortable.
One student, Jackson&mdash;identified as a queer, black, trans man&mdash;pointed out to Pryor the strong presence of Greek Life flags hung in the school&rsquo;s student center.
&ldquo;By featuring these organizations in such a visible way, the campus is communicating the importance of fraternity and sorority membership,&rdquo; Pryor lamented. &ldquo;What would it mean for the campus to hang all the LGBTQ pride flags in that space? Questions likely not considered in such a heterogendered environment.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=9368">[RELATED: Northwestern wants &lsquo;social justice education&rsquo; for frats, sororities]</a>
The school gym can also marginalize LGBTQ students, Pryor discovered, saying that although the school gym is open to all students, it is not &ldquo;not particularly accessible&rdquo; for gay students because of the &ldquo;pressure to be fit&rdquo; and the &ldquo;expectations of manliness.&rdquo;
Jeremy, a gay white cisgender male student, mentioned that locker rooms are similarly problematic, telling Pryor that they &ldquo;represent a space dominated by straight cisgender men, where masculinity is rewarded, heterosexuality is supported by sexist and homophobic comments, and athleticism is attributed to a specific body and masculinist nature.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=9190">[RELATED: Berkeley student fees fund $2.7M gender-neutral locker room]</a>
To fight this, Pryor calls for colleges to &ldquo;escape these exclusionary practices&rdquo; and &ldquo;begin moving toward practices that center LGBTQ lives in all areas of campus,&rdquo; asserting that &ldquo;Institutions can begin to dismantle these traditions through intentional and disruptive efforts to truly center the experiences of LGBTQ communities.&rdquo;
Even something as well-intended as a rainbow flag can be problematic, he notes, pointing out that one student he interviewed &ldquo;felt that the focus on rainbow flags represented a specific White gay ideal, one not representing trans, non-binary people, and people of color.&rdquo;
His article was published in the latest issue of the Journal of LGBT Youth alongside articles about alleged &ldquo;<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19361653.2017.1395305">Gender Panics about Transgender Children</a>&rdquo; and another article about &ldquo;<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19361653.2017.1395308">Gender Non-Conforming Microaggressions</a>.&rdquo;
Campus Reform reached out to Pryor for comment, but he declined.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/Toni_Airaksinen">@Toni_Airaksinen</a>

Admin slams 'homonormative whiteness' of LGBTQ Centers

A Clemson University professor claims that his activist group has succeeded in convincing the school to establish a controversial &ldquo;LGBTQIA+ Community Space.&rdquo;
&ldquo;A political victory at Clemson today,&rdquo; Clemson Professor Todd May crowed in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=297823584067982&amp;id=100015210272912">a&nbsp;Facebook post</a> on November 14. &ldquo;After much struggle, our group, the Clemson Campaign for Campus Justice, successfully pressured the administration to commit to an LGBTQ space for our community.
&ldquo;I know that is something that many other universities already have, but for us it is a real victory,&rdquo; May added.
<a href="../?ID=8740">[RELATED: Clemson profs go on hunger strike against executive order]</a>
In the comments section of the post, May divulged that &ldquo;there were many players in this,&rdquo; including the Clemson University Sexuality and Gender Alliance (CU SAGA), the Clemson Undergraduate Student Government (CUSG) Senate, and the Clemson University President&rsquo;s LGBTQ Commission.
As for the Clemson Campaign for Campus Justice (CCCJ), May stated that his group&rsquo;s role was, &ldquo;to take the more confrontative position with an administration whose mottos is, &lsquo;It will probably go away, so let&rsquo;s ignore it; and if it doesn&rsquo;t go away, we&rsquo;ll stop ignoring it.&rsquo;&rdquo;
Demands for a &ldquo;permanent space&rdquo; for the &ldquo;LGBTQ+ community&rdquo; began in May, when the CUSG Senate passed a formal resolution in support of the effort. The resolution followed an&nbsp;<a href="http://www.thetigernews.com/outlook/an-open-letter-to-administration-on-supporting-the-clemson-lgbtq/article_928bb62c-1e02-11e7-adf8-ef38932ac1e5.html">op-ed</a> in The Tiger by the leader of CU SAGA, who complained that the Clemson administration has treated LGBTQ students as &ldquo;simply another student group.&rdquo;
At the time, Clemson Director of Media Relations, Robin Denny, stated, &ldquo;no location has been identified for use as a community space for our LGBTQIA+ students at this time.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=9161">[RELATED: Resolution demands &lsquo;permanent space&rsquo; for LGBTQ students]</a>
Later, in July, Clemson advertised a job posting for an &ldquo;Associate Director of Rainbow Initiatives,&rdquo; which implied that the LGBTQ space was moving forward. One of the duties described in the posting referred to creating &ldquo;a comfortable, safe, accessible resource center&rdquo; for LGBTQ students and allies.
At the time, Clemson Vice President of University Relations Mark Land stated, &ldquo;no special space that would serve any particular group of students has been discussed or approved by senior administration.&rdquo;
Land further confirmed that the LGBTQ space portion of the job posting was included erroneously, stating, &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t speak to the exact process for producing the job description that you saw, but I have been told that the description is being re-evaluated.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=9453">[RELATED: Clemson denies planning a &lsquo;special space&rsquo; for LGBTQ students]</a>
In an August&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/culgbtqtcommission/posts/1448661265227740">Facebook post</a>, the Clemson President&rsquo;s LGBTQ Commission further confirmed the lack of progress on creating an LGBTQ center, saying, &ldquo;The university has decided to place this job posting on hold. We'll try to provide updates as we find out more.&rdquo;
CU SAGA confirmed this in another&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClemsonSAGA/posts/1596115800433886">Facebook post</a>, lamenting that &ldquo;Clemson University's first full-time staff position for LGBTQ+ programming and advocacy has been put on hold indefinitely.&rdquo;
Campus Reform reached out to the CUSG LGBTQIA+ Engagement Chair, a representative for CU SAGA, the spokesperson for the Clemson President&rsquo;s LGBTQ Commission, the Director of the Clemson Multicultural Center, and university spokespersons for comment, but did not receive any responses in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/rMitchellGunter">@rMitchellGunter</a>

Prof declares 'political victory' on Clemson LGBTQ center

A group of universities recently joined up to host an &ldquo;LGBTQ Mixer,&rdquo; and at least one Catholic institution allegedly required resident assistants to advertise the event in their dorms.
According to one RA, Student Life officials at Fairfield University, a Jesuit institution in Connecticut, required RAs to post flyers promoting&nbsp;the LGBTQ &ldquo;mixer&rdquo; in various places in the residence halls, including personal bulletin boards.
Jimmy Lipko, an RA at Fairfield, told Campus Reform&nbsp;that he was &ldquo;mandated to post flyers no matter what the material on it is," adding that he did not end up posting that particular flyer, but was told that he had to post anything given to him in the future.
<a href="../?ID=8283">[RELATED: 'Unborn Lives Matter' flyer censored by DePaul]</a>
Lipko said that he was being forced to &ldquo;hang up something that is in direct conflict with [the university&rsquo;s] mission as a &lsquo;Catholic, Jesuit institution,&rsquo; which in its mission statement says it educates its students to be &lsquo;morally responsible persons.&rsquo;&rdquo;
<a href="http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm">The Catechism of the Catholic Church</a> states that &ldquo;homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered&rdquo; and are &ldquo;contrary to the natural law.&rdquo; Lipko, a devout Catholic, was specifically disturbed that a university that prides itself on its Catholic nature would require students to post such material, and he felt it was against his moral beliefs.
<img src="../img/CROBlog/10156/LGBTQMixer.jpg" width="600" height="800" />
Lipko confronted university officials about their mandate, and said they pointed him to a section of the student handbook that outlines the university&rsquo;s policy regarding <a href="https://www.fairfield.edu/handbook/policiesprocedures/#PostingDistribution">posting flyers on campus</a>. Nowhere in the specified section, however, is there any mention of individuals being required to post certain flyers.
&ldquo;I fail to see how this section of texts mandates me as an RA to post flyers that are against my morals, but this is what they are using,&rdquo; Lipko said.
<a href="../index.cfm?ID=8664">[RELATED: Catholic college to bus students to pro-abortion protest]</a>
The LGBTQ mixer was held on October 27 and included groups from Southern Connecticut State University, Sacred Heart University, and the University of Bridgeport.
Another RA contacted by Campus Reform for this article declined to be interviewed out of concern he could be retaliated against.
&ldquo;He is scared he'll get in trouble,&rdquo; Lipko said.
Campus Reform reached out to Fairfield University for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JJ_Poff">@JJ_Poff</a>
&nbsp;

RA claims Catholic school tried to make him promote LGBTQ Mixer

Purdue University now offers an LGBTQ-themed study abroad program called &ldquo;sex, history, and the cities.&rdquo; &nbsp;
<a href="https://www.purdue.edu/lgbtq/academics/study_abroad.html">The program</a> will take participants to New York City, Berlin, and Paris, where they will explore &ldquo;LGBTQ history and culture from the eighteenth to twenty-first centuries.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=9132">[RELATED:Purdue prof calls pro-life fetal images 'child pornography']</a>
&ldquo;Taking a comparative approach, we examine the changing meanings of same-sex sexual desire, acts, and identities,&rdquo; a description for the course elaborates, noting that students will &ldquo;uncover and recover how people formed communities around shared sexual and gender identities,&rdquo; while examining &ldquo;how those communities developed and survived, often in the face of devastating, often violent, social, legal, and economic oppressions.&rdquo;
The program, open to students of all majors, will be condensed into six weeks as opposed to the normal 16-week semester length, but nonetheless awards students six credits towards their degrees, which, according to the school's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.purdue.edu/registrar/documents/forms/Credit_Hr_Guidelines.pdf">credit hour guidelines</a>, is at least double what a typical course would provide.
In previous years,&nbsp;students have participated in variety of LGBTQ activities. In Paris, they went sightseeing in the Montmartre neighborhood&mdash;which, according to the program&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/lgbtqabroad/2016/">blog</a>, &ldquo;was filled with sex shops, strip clubs, lingerie stores, [and] porn shops&hellip;&rdquo;
While in New York City, they visited the <a href="http://www.museumofsex.com/">Museum of Sex</a>, where they viewed exhibits such as &ldquo;FunLand: Pleasures &amp; Perils of the Erotic Playground,&rdquo; a carnival-themed room where they were encouraged to &ldquo;contemplate the sexual subtext of carnivals,&rdquo; as well as an attraction that one student simply refers to as a &ldquo;bouncy castle of breasts.&rdquo;
The same student <a href="https://www.purdue.edu/lgbtqabroad/2015/2015/06/07/days-7-8-9-there-are-no-words/">recalls</a> &ldquo;actually being disturbed on some level at a display consisting of robots constructed to depict a sort of porn-viewing theater, complete with a video of the robots&rsquo; lascivious activities.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=7290">[RELATED:&nbsp;Purdue staff member who harassed pro-life students resigns]</a>
Other schools, such as Indiana University-Bloomington, are offering similar study abroad programs, with a program track titled International Perspectives on Sexuality and Gender, which will take 20 students to the Netherlands from January until the end of the semester in May.
&ldquo;Amsterdam, a city well known for its progressive politics and culture, provides a unique setting for this co-sponsored semester program&hellip;&rdquo; the <a href="https://overseas.iu.edu/programs/iu/ovst/netherlands-sit.html">program website</a> states.
The participating students will earn 16 IU credit hours for classes such as the &ldquo;Theory and Application of Feminist, Lesbigay, and Queer Studies&rdquo; course, and will also have the option to participate in a four-credit unpaid internship for 30 hours per week with &ldquo;placements [at] an organization that serves the LGBTQ+ community.&rdquo;
Campus Reform reached out to Kane and Pitts for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="mgentzzz">@mgentzzz</a>
&nbsp;

Purdue offers wacky LGBTQ study abroad to Paris, Berlin

Resident Assistants at Virginia Tech are being instructed to attend and document their attendance at LGBTQ+ events on campus to celebrate LGBTQ+ History month.
According to a VT RA who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, at least some Residence Life supervisors are requiring their RA&rsquo;s to attend at least one LGBTQ+ event during the month of October, even asking the RAs to provide photographic evidence.
<a href="../?ID=9612">[RELATED: Clemson RAs &lsquo;must demonstrate commitment to social justice&rsquo;]</a>
The RA told Campus Reform that the RA&rsquo;s are usually given a list of events on campus and encouraged to attend some, but said attendance had never been compulsory in the past, remarking that &ldquo;we have had many past events we take residents [to], but we usually get [to] pick from a list, and not everyone needs to do each event.&rdquo;
That was not the case at a recent staff meeting when the RA&rsquo;s supervisor told them that they were required to attend an LGBTQ+ event during October, as it is &ldquo;LGBTQ+ history month.&rdquo; They must choose an event to attend, invite their residents to come with them, stay for the entirety of the event, and take a picture to document their attendance.
The meeting agenda obtained by Campus Reform includes the LGBTQ+ event requirement in the to-do list for all the RA&rsquo;s.
<img src="../img/CROBlog/9934/VTRATo-doList.JPG" alt="" width="750" height="394" />
The picture requirement is different, said the RA, who asserted that it has not been required for any other event that they attend.
&ldquo;<a href="http://www.hokiepride.org.vt.edu/">HokiePRIDE</a>&rdquo; events are among those recommended, many of which are designated as &ldquo;Safe Zones&rdquo; and require an RSVP.
<img src="../img/CROBlog/9934/VTRAAgenda.jpg" alt="" width="750" height="394" />
If someone refuses to attend an event, disciplinary action should be expected, the RA told Campus Reform. Such disciplinary action usually includes verbal and written warnings and possible termination.
Campus Reform reached out to Virginia Tech for comment on the matter, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/JJ_Poff">@JJ_Poff</a>

Virginia Tech RAs forced to attend LGBTQ event

A group of professors is calling upon student affairs administrators at universities in the American South to sneak &ldquo;activism for LGBTQ rights&rdquo; into their daily duties.
Hailing the ability of admins to &ldquo;provide powerful methods for change,&rdquo; the professors&mdash;the University of Georgia&rsquo;s Georgianna L. Martin, the University of New Orleans&rsquo; Michael Hoffshire and Christopher Broadhurst, and Millsaps College&rsquo;s William Takewell&mdash;<a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19496591.2017.1345756">argue</a> that while &ldquo;anti-LGBTQ policies and political rhetoric are also found in other regions...they seem to have a great acceptance in the South.&rdquo;
According to the professors, the "increased traditionalism, conservatism, and evangelicalism found in the South" create "cultural barriers" that inhibit efforts to "create inclusive campuses for LGBTQ students."
<a href="../?ID=9367">[RELATED: UT restaffing Pride Center as diversity funding is restored]</a>
&ldquo;Student affairs administrators are in key positions to help challenge current policies and in the struggle to create inclusive campuses for LGBTQ students,&rdquo; the authors proclaim, especially since &ldquo;one of the key purposes&rdquo; of administrators is &ldquo;ensuring [students] receive the support they need to be successful.&rdquo;
To better understand how admins can fight for LGBTQ-oriented policies, Martin interviewed eight administrators employed by colleges in the South, explaining that they focused on the region because &ldquo;state legislation that continues marginalization of the LGBTQ community&rdquo; is &ldquo;over-represented&rdquo; in southern states.
College admins don&rsquo;t need to march at protests to be &ldquo;activists,&rdquo; according to the interviewees, many of whom described less-flashy strategies, such as advocating for &ldquo;same-sex domestic partnership benefits&rdquo; for employees and adding &ldquo;sexual and gender identity to non-discrimination clauses.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=9402">[RELATED: UW-Green Bay offer LGBTQ certification to stem student exodus]</a>
One administrator, &ldquo;Steve,&rdquo; a white heterosexual male who serves as the associate dean of students at his institution, explained to the authors why LGBTQ advocacy on campus is so important.
&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s our job to help create a safe and comfortable space for students of all backgrounds, identities, etc.,&rdquo; he said, elaborating that &ldquo;if there&rsquo;s a population that does not have a way to find their place here and be safe and comfortable here, then it&rsquo;s our job to provide that.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Audrey,&rdquo; an academic advisor, added that administrators have a &ldquo;duty to step up&rdquo; to support marginalized students.
&ldquo;I believe that one of our major roles on campus is to make sure we&rsquo;re advocating for our students in every way,&rdquo; she remarked. &ldquo;Especially when they are targets of discrimination or when they&rsquo;re being treated unfairly or singled out. It&rsquo;s our duty to step up and make sure our students are taken care of.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=9161">[RELATED: Resolution demands &lsquo;permanent space&rsquo; for LGBTQ students]</a>
Other activism strategies that administrators say they have taken include &ldquo;trying to create a LGBTQ Resource Center,&rdquo; creating &ldquo;inclusive housing options for transgender students,&rdquo; and instituting &ldquo;Safe Zone&rdquo; training on their campuses.
While the respondents reported that many of those efforts were successful, they warned that LGBTQ advocacy takes constant work and can be very time consuming.
&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t do it once in the fall and say, &lsquo;okay, I&rsquo;m done with it for every two to three years.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s got to be constant,&rdquo; said &ldquo;Dean,&rdquo; the director of his school&rsquo;s student union.
The key to successful advocacy lies both in &ldquo;political savvy,&rdquo; and the ability to find &ldquo;workaround solutions&rdquo; to subvert the school&rsquo;s normal decision-making process, the authors argue, concluding that their findings will be useful for any administrators &ldquo;who wish to improve campus policies and practices for LGBTQ individuals.&rdquo;
Campus Reform reached out to each of the authors for additional information. Christopher Broadhurst, who teaches Educational Leadership at the University of New Orleans, declined to comment, but none of the other professors responded.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/Toni_Airaksinen">@Toni_Airaksinen</a>

Profs call for LGBTQ 'activism' by admins in the South

Rutgers University is hosting an entire &ldquo;LGBTQIA Welcome Week&rdquo; for gay and transgender students during the first week of classes.
The <a href="http://socialjustice.rutgers.edu/event-calendar/">LGBTQIA Welcome Week</a> will host numerous events, including a <a href="https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=N29pbmY4bDQ0ZnJsamU4YnAycHR1bzlydTIgNnM0MW5sZWlxNjU4MnRpcmR1cWdkdmk1c2dAZw&amp;ctz=America/New_York">LGBTQIA Fall Reception</a>&nbsp;featuring a performance by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/bigfreedia/">Big Freedia</a>&mdash;a self-described &ldquo;gay male&rdquo; <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHNiNP3hDkU">drag queen</a> who uses she/her pronouns&mdash;and a <a href="https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=MjBja20ycWJlY2FjYzFpbWhocDc3OTc0YTMgNnM0MW5sZWlxNjU4MnRpcmR1cWdkdmk1c2dAZw&amp;ctz=America/New_York">Social Justice Open Mic Night</a>, which invites students to sing, rap, and do spoken word performances around the theme of &ldquo;social justice.&rdquo;
<a href="../?ID=9147">[RELATED: Student gov to pursue mandator LGBT &lsquo;ally training&rsquo; for faculty]</a>
Gay and queer students are also invited to a &ldquo;<a href="https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=NWdhaDJpa3U5djluYjkxanBtZGk5YW5vdXMgNnM0MW5sZWlxNjU4MnRpcmR1cWdkdmk1c2dAZw&amp;ctz=America/New_York">Block Party</a>,&rdquo; where they&rsquo;ll enjoy free food, refreshments, and performances from the school&rsquo;s Asian American Cultural Center and the Center for Latino Arts.
The school will also host <a href="https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=NDlncjNyYzBydGZnaWduczhnbXZ0bmVuZ24gNnM0MW5sZWlxNjU4MnRpcmR1cWdkdmk1c2dAZw&amp;ctz=America/New_York">a brunch event</a> for LGBTQIA international students, where they&rsquo;ll help administrators &ldquo;brainstorm more globally themed programs,&rdquo; and the week will conclude with a &ldquo;<a href="https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=NGQ1MWlxb3BwZzhvOWgzbzM5Z21wMzUzajQgNnM0MW5sZWlxNjU4MnRpcmR1cWdkdmk1c2dAZw&amp;ctz=America/New_York">Big Queer Game Knight</a>," where students can play "life-size games" and fraternize with classmates.
After the first week of classes is over, some of those students will be involved in&nbsp;<a href="http://socialjustice.rutgers.edu/event-calendar/q-mmunity/">Q-mmunity</a>, a program for LGBTQ students and allies that offers a &ldquo;leadership development retreat&rdquo; and a &ldquo;mentoring program.&rdquo; While the Q-mmunity accepted applications earlier this month, the program has since reached capacity.
<a href="../?ID=9577">[RELATED: College provides safe space for &lsquo;fat-identified&rsquo; LGBT students]</a>
The extensive LGBTQIA programming was spearheaded by the school&rsquo;s <a href="http://socialjustice.rutgers.edu/event-calendar/q-mmunity/">Center for Social Justice Education and LGBTQ Communities</a>, which was <a href="http://socialjustice.rutgers.edu/about-us/history/">established</a> in 2005 and seeks to &ldquo;enhance the quality of life for LGBT students&rdquo; and &ldquo;expand training workshops on gender identity to departments across the university,&rdquo; among other things.
While most of the school&rsquo;s programming during the beginning of the semester focuses on incoming freshmen, the school also <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/270355766798017/?acontext=%7B%22source%22%3A3%2C%22source_newsfeed_story_type%22%3A%22regular%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22[%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22newsfeed%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22feed_story%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A[]%7D]%22%2C%22has_source%22%3Atrue%7D&amp;source=3&amp;source_newsfeed_story_type=regular&amp;action_history=[%7B%22surface%22%3A%22newsfeed%22%2C%22mechanism%22%3A%22feed_story%22%2C%22extra_data%22%3A[]%7D]&amp;has_source=1&amp;fref=mentions">invites recent grads to return</a> to campus for monthly &ldquo;Lgbtqia Grad Social&rdquo; events at a local bar, with free food sponsored by the Rutgers Social Justice Center.
Campus Reform reached out to Rutgers University, a public institution, to inquire into how the programming is funded, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="../?ID=9651">@Toni_Airaksinen</a>

Rutgers to host drag queen during 'LGBTQIA Welcome Week'

Spelman College recently launched a $100,000 scholarship fund for &ldquo;self-identified LGBTQ advocates.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Two sophomore students, who are self-identified LGBTQ advocates, will be named Levi Watkins Jr. Scholars in 2017 and awarded renewable $25,000 scholarships,&rdquo; according to a <a href="http://www.spelman.edu/about-us/news-and-events/news-releases/2017/07/18/professor-beverly-guy-sheftall-creates-scholarship-in-honor-of-dr.-levi-watkins-jr">press release</a>.
<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9157">[RELATED: University paying students to be &lsquo;social-justice advocates&rsquo;] </a>
The release notes that the new program will be funded with a pledge of $100,000, which will also help fund a lecture series exploring &ldquo;contemporary issues of race, gender, and sexuality&rdquo; that is slated to begin in 2018.
&ldquo;As an institution that upholds a supportive student experience, this gift will present new opportunities for critical conversation on race and sexuality with distinguished scholars and thought leaders, and provide a platform to recognize campus LGBTQ advocates and their scholarly achievements,&rdquo; Spelman College President Mary Schmidt Campbell remarked.
Professor Beverly Guy-Sheftall, who founded the scholars program, elaborated that participants &ldquo;will call attention to the importance of making visible the courageous and significant work of LGBTQ scholar activists within and beyond the academy, especially at HBCUs [historically black colleges and universities].&rdquo;
According to the press release, the program will be housed at the college&rsquo;s Women&rsquo;s Center, which &ldquo;has been involved in a broad range of advocacy issues&rdquo; as well curriculum &ldquo;development related to gender and sexuality since its inception in 1981.&rdquo;
<a href="https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=9204">[RELATED: UCLA paying students to fight &lsquo;whiteness,&rsquo; &lsquo;patriarchy&rsquo;] </a>
The program&rsquo;s namesake, Levi Watkins, Jr., was awarded an honorary degree from Spelman College for being &ldquo;the first surgeon to successfully implant an automatic heart defibrillator in a human patient&rdquo; while helping hundreds of black students into medical school, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/17/health/levi-watkins-70-pioneering-heart-surgeon-is-dead.html">The New York Times</a>.
Campus Reform reached out to Spelman College for additional comment, but was referred to back to the press release.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/asabes10">@asabes10</a>