Questions about DEI sent to UT go unanswered
The University of Tennessee and organizations within it have had much to say about diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as critical race theory. They readily talk about or promote either one. When it comes to answering questions about how those stances affect academic freedom or the ability to speak freely on campus, however, the silence is deafening.
There's no question that these issues are a minefield for modern university leaders. If they're seen to be slow in bringing about certain types of “diversity,” they'll be criticized for not doing enough, right now! Go too far, and they risk alienating people who see the university as moving left and wasting money on DEI bureaucracy. The people in charge are walking an ultra-thin, and often bouncy, tightrope. Caution is understandable. But it's a university, after all, where academics and ideas are supposed to be discussed and debated, and questions answered.
DEI programs being reigned in
Across the country, diversity, equity and inclusion programs, commonly referred to as DEI for short, are in the news, as colleges and businesses begin to roll back their DEI structures. Businesses such as Meta, Home Depot and DoorDash are cutting the costs and responding to growing pushback against DEI programs.
“More than a dozen state legislatures have introduced or passed bills reining in DEI programs in colleges and universities, claiming the offices eat up valuable financial resources with little impact. Multiple states, like North Carolina and South Carolina, have introduced bills to track college DEI spending,” said CNN in June 2023. And the movement is accelerating.
Diversity and inclusion are subjective. Some years ago, on a television panel show with a Black gentleman I hold in great respect, the conversation was about the percentage of minority students at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. A point of discussion was whether affirmative action-type allowances should be made for minorities.
At one point, he said, “A university (student population) should reflect the community.” I asked, “Would that be true as well for the basketball team?” His answer: “No.”
The anti-DEI movement is typically characterized by the political left as attacks or criticism from the political right. That makes it a simplistic, line-in-the-sand, left vs. right confrontation. Questioning or opposing multimillion dollar DEI bureaucracies is even cited as evidence that those against, or even asking tough questions about, DEI programs somewhat want to re-create America's racial history. The charge can also be interpreted as attempting to cut off debate, because an exploration of DEI programs might lead to finding them to be too big, complicated, misdirected, expensive or even unnecessary.
According to UT's website, its Office of Equity and Diversity was created 50 years ago as the Affirmative Action Office. In 2016, after a series of controversies, the then-Office of Diversity and Inclusion was defunded for a year by the Tennessee General Assembly. In November 2023, it was announced that the UT System's Division of Diversity and Engagement's name was being changed to “Access and Engagement.”
The reason, as the UT Daily Beacon reported, is “an effort to better reflect the division's mission, as well as move away from some potentially divisive terminology.”
And, in a moment of remarkable candor, the DEI head for the School of Journalism and Media cited avoiding legislative attention as a reason for the name change: “‘We are in a very ultra-conservative state, and there are political actors who would completely do away with DEI, whether it's the title or the work that we do,' Guy Harrison said. ‘And this kind of protects us from them a little bit. But I wish it wasn't necessary … we shouldn't need to whitewash the word diversity out of things, just not to alarm certain people.' ”
With DEI becoming an ever-larger issue on the collegiate landscape, earlier this year I sent a list of questions to the office of Chancellor Donde Plowman of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. In 2020, in the wake of George Floyd's killing by a Minneapolis police officer, organizations throughout the country instituted expanded diversity programs and policies. UT was no exception. The chancellor announced – and it's on the UT website – a list of initiatives, among them that UT's colleges develop “diversity action plans.” The website message contains several references to the Critical Race Collective at UT, including, “We will hire a CRC Fellow to work with the Division of Diversity and Engagement to coordinate antiracist teach-ins, conferences, and other programming.”
Questions submitted to UT Chancellor Donde Plowman
In light of nationwide scrutiny of DEI programs and arguments over critical race theory, in January I sent the following list of questions to the UT Chancellor's office, requesting answers.
1. What is the extent of the racial problem, deficiency, etc., at the University of Tennessee that diversity action plans are necessary?
2. Is there any plan to phase them out?
3. Is the chancellor’s office continuing to work with the Critical Race Collective on DEI initiatives?
4. Does the chancellor’s office agree with the five tenets of Critical Race Theory as presented on the CRC website?
“Members of the Critical Race Collective adhere to the five central tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT), which include the following:
• Centrality of Race and Racism in Society: CRT asserts that racism is a central component of American life.
•
CRT challenges the claims of neutrality, objectivity, colorblindness, and meritocracy in society.
•
CRT asserts that the experiential knowledge of people of color is appropriate, legitimate, and an integral part to analyzing and understanding racial inequality.
•
CRT challenges ahistoricism and the unidisciplinary focuses of most analyses and insists that race and racism be placed in both a contemporary and historical context using interdisciplinary methods.
•
CRT is a framework that is committed to a social justice agenda to eliminate all forms of subordination of people.”
5. Does the chancellor agree, or disagree, that racism is a central component of life at the University of Tennessee?
6. Having engaged the CRC in this manner, does the chancellor support, or take no position, on the CRC leadership’s repeated refusal in the past to answer questions about its operations and organizational philosophy?
7. Why should a student who makes known their disagreement with the CRC statement of beliefs and tenets that they will be treated fairly if in a class taught by a CRC-affiliated faculty member?
8. In light of the political and social positions being taken by UT colleges (for example, https://anthropology.utk.edu/ statements-on-anti-racism/) to what degree are students – white, or of color – who disagree with such positions justified in feeling that UT isn’t safe, welcoming and inclusive toward them?
9. To what degree is the chancellor concerned or unconcerned that politically conservative, or even moderate, students are reluctant, or even fearful, to voice their positions on campus?
10. In the initiative to pursue DEI, to what degree is it solely based on race and ethnicity, or is intellectual diversity (conservative or non-“progressive” thinking) demonstrably a factor in DEI? If so, how is that manifesting itself at UT?”
UT's answer, through a spokesperson, in its entirety: “Both the Knoxville campus and the University of Tennessee System have a broad access mission, and a commitment to supporting all students, staff and faculty regardless of their perspectives. The university has many fields of study, and students can pursue the paths that interest them.”
Since 2022, I've sent questions several times about content on the CRC's website to its co-directors, the most recent on March 13. The answer: silence.
No one around here wants to get on UT's bad side. As the state's flagship university, its importance to the city, the region and the state can't be overstated. Wherever one goes in the country, even if they haven't heard of Knoxville, say “University of Tennessee,” and listeners know immediately where you're from.
Its contributions to the welfare of the state and nation are innumerable. And Chancellor Plowman and others responsible for running the UT campus are by all accounts professionals as well as good folks.
Nevertheless, universities are centers of learning in which competing and diverse thoughts should be presented, argued, debated – and questioned – without fear of running afoul of “safe and welcoming” mandates. Administrators should be able to answer questions – and not just positive, “explain please how great DEI is” questions – about the university's programs they design and implement. It would be nice if they'd answer even a few.
George Korda is a political analyst for WATE-TV, hosts “State Your Case” from noon to 2 p.m. Sundays on WOKI-FM Newstalk 98.7 and is president of Korda Communications, a public relations and communications consulting firm.