A public university in Tennessee is offering financial incentives to instructors in exchange for inserting social justice into their courses.
According to an e-mail sent to all faculty at the University of Memphis, professors were told they could collect a $3,000 stipend if they redesigned their curricula to align with the university’s commitment to “diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.”
Faculty who wish to accept the offer are asked to send in a copy of the syllabi to be reworked, along with a 500-word “narrative” on their “diversity, equity, and inclusion philosophy” and how the new lessons will “address disparities” in their subject area.
The offer from the University of Memphis is only part of an increasing trend on college campuses across the nation — where promotion of “social justice” is now the norm. At Ohio’s Kenyon College, for example, professors can no longer receive tenure unless they can demonstrate “promotion of an inclusive classroom environment that values diversity.”
The Memphis stipend offer prompted concerns from faculty and lawmakers about how taxpayer money is being used. A faculty member who spoke anonymously out of fear of retribution told the Washington Free Beacon that the offer “makes you scratch your head” in light of the school’s financial restraints.
“We’ve had a hard time retaining good faculty at our salary levels, so anytime you see money being spent on non-student or non-faculty causes, it makes you scratch your head,” said the professor. “Could this money be spent on students or retaining quality faculty rather than a progressive agenda that isn’t likely supported by the taxpayers or voters of Tennessee?”
The faculty member added that he worries otherwise applicable courses could now be used to turn students into activists.
“I’m not sure how changing an accounting, nursing, or engineering course to align with social justice principles helps students,” he said. “When faculty are underpaid in the first place, it’s hard to blame them for taking this money. But it creates an incentive for a nonpartisan instructor to turn their students into activists for a few extra dollars.”
Representative Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) blasted the university leadership, saying they should be “ashamed” for using taxpayer funds to push professors toward “useless teaching.”
“Leadership at the University of Memphis should be ashamed for bribing professors to advance this useless teaching,” Burchett said after his office received word of the program. “Students are better prepared for professional careers if they learn the three R’s — reading, writing, and arithmetic — instead of woke activism.”
The Free Beacon notes:
The taxpayer-funded school expects that grant winners will “serve as Course Design Ambassadors for their home departments, colleges, and centers.” Interested applicants have until Jan. 28 to submit social justice grants to the university, with hopes that new courses could be implemented as soon as next fall.
The university’s page on promoting social justice states a “need for faculty, staff, and students to become more culturally competent and knowledgeable about all races and cultures in a world made increasingly smaller by globalization.”
“Regrettably, many have not had in-depth training, experience, or exposure to navigate experiences involving cross-racial, cross-cultural issues of diverse groups, but desire training to do so,” the university writes.
The University of Memphis professor said he believes money would be better spent on lowering tuition costs and retaining talent.
“I think the taxpayers of Tennessee should be aware that the administration is prioritizing spending money on systemic racism above retaining faculty, staff, cost-cutting, or lowering tuition,” he asserted.
In the age of COVID, colleges have also been leveraging their authority over students to compel them to receive COVID vaccines. Administrators at City University of New York (CUNY) removed over 1,200 students from their fall classes over vaccine noncompliance. Columbia University, NYU, and St. John’s have also all instituted vaccine mandates for students with the ostensible aim of protecting against coronavirus.
With the constant bombardment of left-wing propaganda on campuses, it is any wonder the nation’s youth are increasingly adherents of socialism? The prevailing belief that young people are inherently inclined towards “liberalism” is a lie that the Left itself is glad to propagate.
The young are inclined to believe what they are taught to believe. If they receive nothing but progressive indoctrination from elementary to university, how can we expect them to be constitutionalists?
The key is to cut off the indoctrination. Get the children out of the public schools, and encourage them to choose trade schools over big universities.
And instead of just complaining about the situation, lawmakers should pull the plug on funding for schools that promote Marxism on campus. There’s no reason public universities, especially in conservative states, should be getting away with this flagrant misuse of taxpayer funds.
