by James A. Bacon
Virginia Commonwealth University is making no effort to sugar coat the message. It has taken sides in America’s culture wars. And it will crush anyone on its campus who doesn’t go along.
In remarks to the VCU board of visitors Friday, Aashir Nasim, vice president of institutional equity, effectiveness and success, laid out the case with startling clarity. He was not going rogue. He spoke with the full approval of the university administration, and his full remarks can be found on the VCU website.
Sounding the refrain of America’s systemic racism, he made it clear that he and the administration, aren’t the slightest bit interested in debating those who might disagree. “We certainly don’t worry if people outside of VCU don’t think we are considering all sides of an issue when we send statements of solidarity and support that are centered on our core values as a university,” he said. “We will not get looped into parsing the false dichotomies between party crowds on our beaches during stay-at-home orders and protesters in the streets of our major cities after curfew.”
Under the direction of President Michael Rao, the university formed a task force in 2018 of 80 faculty, staff and students to provide recommendations regarding bias and discrimination. Since then, Nasim said, the university has been working on implementing the following:
Physical environment. VCU is developing a plan, to be submitted to the board this fall, to “dismantle the remaining vestiges of an unwanted history on our campus.”
Adjudicating microaggressions. “We realize the deleterious effects of death by a thousand microaggressions,” Nasim said. The university is revising its non-discrimination policy to create an “alternate pathway” for adjudicating matters “in a way that is affirming for those who have been aggrieved.”
Non-discrimination training. The university has completed a non-discrimination module for employees. “However,” said Nasim, “while mandatory non-discrimination courses increase accountability and compliance, evidence shows they do not change attitudes and cognitions.” Therefore, the university has developed a compendium of diversity and inclusion courses, seminars and programs for faculty and staff. (It is not clear if these additional courses will be mandatory.)
Gender identify diversity. VCU will launch a program, Call me by my name,” that will “make inclusion real … by recognizing that individuals have the right to use names other than their legal name, to identify with the gender they know themselves to be, and to utilize the pronounces that best fit them.”
Incident reporting, feedback. and responsiveness. VCU will make it easier for employees and students to report adverse events. As an aside, the university is overhauling its curriculum to “implement inclusive teaching pedagogies that are student-centered and meet our students where they are in terms of their learning trajectories.”
Let me boil this down for you.
- VCU is mandating non-discrimination training that will engender hyper-sensitivity to perceived “micro-aggressions.”
- The university will encourage students and employees to report these micro-aggressions. These might include failure to call a transgender person by his/her/its/whatever preferred pronoun.
- New methods of adjudicating these instances will be “affirming for those who have been aggrieved.”
In sum, VCU is building a totalitarian system around “social justice” principles. It is not sufficient simply to comply. As Nasim makes clear, it is necessary to “change attitudes and cognitions.”
Submit or you will be crushed. The radical Left plans to run VCU as a political re-education camp, which tells us that’s how, if it gets the chance, it will run the United States. If you aren’t terrified, you aren’t thinking.
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