by James A. Bacon
Governor Glenn Youngkin is scheduled to speak at the College of William & Mary’s Charter Day ceremony in three days, when he will receive an honorary degree. Taking umbrage at his stance against Critical Race Theory in public schools, three law school students have started a campaign, “No Degrees for Bigotry.” As of this morning, the petition had 1,341 signatures.
“Students from historically-marginalized groups cannot feel respected or included when the administration consistently awards honorary degrees to individuals who seek to further their oppression,” writes petition organizer Sophia Kingsley in the petition.
Clearly, there is widespread distaste at W&M for Youngkin. And not without reason. The law school students are correct in saying that the Governor’s policies are antithetical to the values of W&M, which under President Katherine Rowe has been enthusiastically translating Critical Race Theory into practice. “What are we saying if that’s who we want to give an honorary degree to?” asks co-organizer Skye McCollum, according to the student newspaper, Flat Hat News.
A fair question. Youngkin might ask the same: Why would he want to accept an honorary degree from a university that embraces values antithetical to his values and to those who voted for him?
Why would Youngkin wish to put the stamp of gubernatorial approval on an institution where (in the business school at least) it is now standard in job interviews to ask applicants how they foresee incorporating Diversity, Equity & Inclusion practices into their work… where anyone who disagrees with the social prescriptions of oh-so-enlightened law school students is deemed a “bigot” and an “oppressor”?
I’ll have more to say about W&M’s DEI policies in an upcoming post. The W&M speech is an opportunity for Youngkin to give public universities in Virginia a hard come-to-Jesus reckoning with reality. In the meantime, he needs to stop playing nicey-face with higher-ed leaders who have gone far beyond anything contemplated in Virginia public schools to impose CRT-inspired orthodoxy.
W&M parents are sick and tired (or should be) of paying the highest tuition of any public university in Virginia to have their kids immersed in leftist dogma. Alumni are sick and tired (or should be) of emptying their pockets for the Woke who think of them as racists, bigots and oppressors. Taxpayers are sick and tired of subsidizing W&M and other wokeness factories that take their money and then spit on them.
Who gives a rip if it’s the 329th anniversary of W&M’s founding? Youngkin needs to drop a truth bomb. W&M and other public universities have thoroughly alienated the people who pay the bills.
If anyone wants to start a counter-petition — asking Youngkin to spurn the honorary degree — count on Bacon’s Rebellion to help publicize it.
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