by James A. Bacon
The University of Virginia’s task force on religious diversity and belonging won’t issue formal recommendations until the end of the month, but task force chair Christa Acampora gave the Board of Visitors a preview today of the topics it likely will address. At the top of the list will be integrating the religious identity of UVA community members into the broader Inclusive Excellence framework for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
The primary emphasis of Inclusive Excellence and DEI until now has been race/ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender. To those identity groups, presumably, UVA would add religions, particularly “minority” religions.
Acampora did not elaborate in the brief time allotted to her what that might entail, but the Inclusive Excellence website articulates principles for implementing DEI throughout the University’s organization and culture. Board members were given no time to ask her questions.
The Ryan administration created the task force last December to deal with the fallout from the protests, rallies, teach-ins and other activities following the Hamas terror attacks on the “apartheid” “colonial settler” state of Israel, which gained momentum after Israeli incursions into Gaza created thousands of civilian casualties. Jewish students reported dozens of incidents they interpreted as antisemitic. More than 80 faculty members signed a letter accusing President Jim Ryan of being insufficiently sympathetic to the suffering of the Palestinian people.
Acampora put a positive gloss on task force activities. “I think we’ve learned a lot,” she told the Board. The task force has created a forum for people of different religious backgrounds to share their experiences, she said.
The dean declined to mention the state-police crackdown on the pro-Palestinian “encampment” for violation of the university’s tent ordinances in May, or the resignation of religion-department professor Oludamini Ogunnaike, a Muslim, from the task force in protest of that action. Instead, she briefly described how the group was “engaging” with people of different religious perspectives, gathering data on attitudes, examining complaints of religious-based bias, and benchmarking UVA against 13 peer and five in-state institutions.
Other recommendations, she said, will address:
- The different experiences that Muslims and Jews have from other religious groups;
- Strengthening academic offerings, training and modeling;
- Support services;
- Community engagement;
- Reporting of bias incidents;
- Special accommodations for religious minorities;
- Expressive conduct.
… and more.
It remains to be seen if the concern about “inclusion'” and “belonging” will be extended to Christians. Although Christians outnumber Muslims, Jews and other religious groups by a significant margin and Christian respondents expressed a greater sense of belonging in a 2018 campus-climate survey, they, too, have their complaints. Significant hostility toward Christians exists in the predominantly secular culture at UVA. Under the 0ppressor-oppressed paradigm that animates the DEI bureaucracy, Christians are typically numbered among the oppressors.
James A. Bacon is publisher of the Bacon’s Rebellion blog and contributing editor of The Jefferson Council.