Over the past two decades, the University of Alaska system has become a hotbed for hard-leftist projects, programs and curriculum – pushing DEI, critical race theory and LGBTQ activism.
This includes mandatory DEI classes, school “Safe Zones” where traditional moral and social perspectives are unwelcome, myriad courses that aggressively push critical race and gender theories, the construction of a modern LGBTQ “Pride Center” in the heart of the Anchorage campus, gender-neutral bathrooms and dormitory assignments, and the deployment diversity officers to ensure compliance across all sectors of university life.
Many of these projects are now facing serious challenges after the University of Alaska Board of Regents voted 9-1 on Feb. 21 to review all programs and operations to ensure they do not run afoul of federal and state laws, regulations, orders and guidance.
It is clear, however, that many entrenched professors and campus staff are adamantly opposed to the changes, which could prove problematic.
Specifically, the regents directed UA President Pat Pitney to “take all necessary actions to comply with recent federal executive orders and applicable agency guidance.” This includes making changes to ensure university websites and other electronic or print material representing each university no longer refer to “affirmative action,” “DEI” or “diversity, equity and inclusion,” and other associated terms. Additionally, the regents want all staff position titles purged of these references.
The regents’ decision comes on the heels of a series of executive orders from President Trump, which threaten to pull federal funding from institutions that pursue these divisive political and cultural ideologies, especially as they pertain to racially motivated decisions regarding employment, student enrollment and institutional programing. With roughly 20% of its funding (more than $240 million) derived from federal taxpayer dollars, the University of Alaska system has a lot at stake if it fails to comply.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
How quickly or faithfully the statewide university system complies with these new directives is uncertain. The three main campuses in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau have serious work to do, after years of weaving leftist philosophy into their campus life and academics.
While University of Alaska websites have already begun scrubbing public references to DEI terminology, it remains to be seen whether the changes will be more than mere semantic tweaks to course titles, resources, grant applications and staff positions.
It is clear, however, that many entrenched professors and campus staff are adamantly opposed to the changes, which could prove problematic.
A Feb. 27 article in the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, student newspaper reports that dozens of faculty members have engaged in public protests against the regents’ decision. Staff at UAA and UAS have also voiced their defiant opposition to the changes.
Below is a small sampling of DEI links that, as of Feb. 27, were still live on University of Alaska websites for the Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau campuses.
— UAA Diversity and Inclusion general education requirement
— UAA Social Inclusion and Equity classes
— Incorporating DEI into UAA General Education Requirements at UAA
— UAS Critical Race Theory resources
— UAF Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion series
— UAF Diversity and anti-racism tool kit
— Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at UAF
— UAA Pride Center and Multicultural Student Services
TAKING ACTION
— Click here to contact members of the UA Board of Regents.
— Click here for information on how to file a charge of discrimination with the U.S. Civil Rights Division.
21 Comments
Time to just let go!! Easy to do!
New sheriff in White House for next four years. You either comply or lose federal funding. Simple as that. Bye, bye DEI programs, courses, trainings, policies, etc. at University of Alaska campuses. Real as it gets students and tenured professors. Resistance is futile.
Bye, bye, safe airlines, VA services, NPS enjoyment. And so long starving children in some poor country. Hello Mariner, Aviator and Snowmachiner levels of weather forecasts. Meals on wheels!?! Let them eat their bootstraps. If President Musk and candy striper Don are successful in lowering your taxes by $200 per year, “would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while?” – TS Eliot
These are nonsense talking points. Do you not believe that by saving money on waste and fraud we can then direct aid where it really should be going? Your assumption that President Trump hates people is demonstratively false. Lowering taxes means that the poor will have more money in their pockets. Do you think that is a bad idea? Please demonstrate how improving the economy hurts anyone. I’ll wait.
You sound like you have been vaccinated and took boosters.
Tax cuts, under Trump’s plan, only occur for households making >$360,000 per year. If your household makes less than that (as most do), your tax burden will most likely increase by $1500/year. FAFO, but your lack of common sense and rejection of education are costing all of us.
First, this article is filled with discriminatory language. Good reporting requires the journalist to be invisible in order to relay information without judgement. Second, being an institution of higher learning, it goes without saying that the university is a place of learning and learning is progressive. To remove safeguards that have been put into place to protect rights of all is in immediate opposition of what higher learning is all about. One can not learn with a closed mind.
Second,.. you are full of it… Are you a “student”, or a “destructor” ? … Fine educational display.
Sound to me like learning isn’t exactly what colleges are for anymore, more like indoctrination. A closed mind is just as wasteful as a mind that has no filter.
Oh, Bryn, please list the rights that anyone is losing by not funding a bunch of socialist and perverted nonsense. Now please list the rights that you think some people don’t have due to their lifestyle choices. Then point to the “progressive” learning that you think you are doing, because I can tell you, if you were truly educated, you would see that there is nothing new under the sun. Go read some Cicero and Suetonius and then tell me how humans have “progressed” since ancient times. I’ll wait.
Tamra. I usually don’t agree with you, but I’m with you that there is nothing new under the sun. Intolerance, institutionalized ignorance, hatred of the Other, critical thinking replaced by superstition, these traits have been with us since the establishment of Christianity. Shame.
And Manny, why do you think government needs to fund your particular perversion? You get to choose to be as odd as you like, but I don’t have to condone it or like it, and I certainly don’t have to pay for it. Discernment is a virtue, nobody is stopping you from doing your thing, but you don’t get to make everyone like it.
Easy to turn that back on you. Why do you think government should fund your particular superstition?
And if we’re a drag performer, somebody like you and other Christian Nationalists, would be trying to stop me.
Most of the time, Christians are hypocritical. Your comment here is one of those times
You sound like you have been vaccinated and took booster shots.
Well since sadly you are a state University and also take Federal funds Too bad. Here is a Plan we will sell the land grant Bloated mess of a University and then as a private business you can do whatever but know if you piss off the customer you will go out of business!
sell it absolutely agree with lovings! At the same time poke dunleavy in the a n d show him what leaders do!
Naive youth are always easy to indoctrinate. So, progressives naturally gravitate towards using these institutions, — to sow the seeds of deadbeat socialism.
YES! Deadbeat socialism! I no longer accept the insanely socialistic Permanent Fund Dividend! Money for being an ALASKAN? Pure socialism
This is a link to fill out a reporting form for noncompliance.. enddei.ed.gov We will be sending one to our school board and superintendent.
“Noncompliance “. Aren’t you conservatives in favor of personal freedom? I picture you two peering into neighborhood windows looking for brown skin people and taking photos and notes.
It’s ALWAYS been about the money, as corruptible as academia is. The last 12 years $16,000,000,000 from Qatar to Ivy League universities for all the programs that spawn Middle East terrorist organizations activism among our impressionable young people. That money is going to dry up along with Federal funding. The universities will be howling at the Fascists. Ahem. Let them survive on their massive endowments.