Posts Tagged ‘education’

Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw Files Bill To Ban DEI Statements At Universities

Tuesday, December 19th, 2023

Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw sometimes strikes me as a bit squishy, but his bill to ban requiring DEI statements at American universities is a step in the right direction.

A Texas congressman has introduced legislation to quell diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements at American universities by prohibiting “ideological oaths and similar statements” on college campuses.

The bill from Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX-2) would amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 by adding that a university cannot require an employee to “endorse an ideology that promotes the differential treatment of an individual or group of individuals based on race, color, or ethnicity[.]”

The legislation would also prohibit universities from compelling employees to provide DEI statements.

Crenshaw told National Review that “we can see the utter moral bankruptcy in higher education with the spread of antisemitism on college campuses.”

“Make no mistake: The DEI bureaucracy is directly responsible for a toxic campus culture that separates everyone into oppressor versus oppressed.”

“That’s why I am dropping legislation to protect free thought and prevent federal funding for universities that force students to write diversity, equity, and inclusion statements.”

During its 88th regular session, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 17 banning DEI offices at public institutions of higher education. Included in SB 17 are limitations placed on admissions, scholarships, and grants programs.

This June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action admission policies, an opinion based on the legal challenges raised against admission policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that were accused of disadvantaging Asian applicants.

Although legal challenges to such ideas appear to be winning, the radicalization of students and young people remains an issue to be confronted.

This is a start, but falls far short of the sort of hard reboot our social justice-infected universities really need. And it’s deeply unlikely to pass the Democrat-controlled senate…

Elon U?

Thursday, December 14th, 2023

It seems like Austin is becoming something of a center for anti-woke universities. First the University of Austin anounced it was starting a campus here, and now Elon Musk has filed paperwork to start a new university.

Billionaire Elon Musk is likely to start a university in Austin that will begin with a primary and secondary school centered on science, technology, engineering, and math, according to a report by Bloomberg, which reviewed financial statements of Musk’s charitable foundation.

The outlet reported that the new organization filed documents with the Internal Revenue Service seeking tax exempt status. Musk’s university will seek accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Bloomberg added that Musk transferred $2.2 billion to his charitable foundation in 2022. Some years ago, Musk also started a school for his own children and the children of other employees of SpaceX.

Musk moved to Texas in 2020 and has since purchased X, formerly known as Twitter. He also announced in the fall of 2021 that he would move Tesla’s headquarters to Austin.

In one way, Austin is a weird choice for the Anti-Woke University Capital of the US, since it’s a blue dot in a red oasis. In another way in makes a lot of sense, as Austin has been tagged the “cool” place to live for quite a while, and has attracted anti-woke refugees like Musk and Joe Rogan.

Also, if Musk’s university is going to focus on STEM, “Silicon Hills” has one of the biggest concentrations of tech companies outside Silicon Valley. That’s a good pool to draw expertise from, and a place for students to find jobs.

If Musk can found a university that actually teaches useful information, without being infected with social justice, and can avoid inflicting postcolonial studies and Queer Theory on students, more power to him.

Texas House To School Choice: Drop Dead

Saturday, November 18th, 2023

If you were wondering if the left-leaning cabal behind Dade Phelan would ever let any form of school choice pass the Texas house, now you know.

Following a year of anticipation and four special sessions, the hopes of school choice being passed on the floor of the Texas House have been dashed after an amendment stripped education savings accounts (ESAs) from this special session’s education omnibus bill.

The amendment offered by Rep. John Raney (R-College Station) was initially signed by 16 other members before being passed by a vote of 84 to 63.

Members then voted to lock that change in and prevent the removal from being reconsidered at a later time, a motion which passed by the same margin as Raney’s amendment.

Of the 85 Republicans in the House, those voting in favor of the ESA removal amendment included:

  • Rep. Steve Allison (R-San Antonio)
  • Rep. Ernest Bailes (R-Shepherd)
  • Rep. Keith Bell (R-Forney)
  • Rep. DeWayne Burns (R-Cleburne)
  • Rep. Travis Clardy (R-Nacogdoches)
  • Rep. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo)
  • Rep. Jay Dean (R-Longview)
  • Rep. Charlie Geren (R-Fort Worth)
  • Rep. Justin Holland (R-Rockwall)
  • Rep. Kyle Kacal (R-College Station)
  • Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian)
  • Rep. John Kuempel (R-Seguin)
  • Rep. Stan Lambert (R-Abilene)
  • Rep. Andrew Murr (R-Junction)
  • Rep. Four Price (R-Amarillo)
  • Rep. John Raney (R-College Station)
  • Rep. Glenn Rogers (R-Graford)
  • Rep. Hugh Shine (R-Temple)
  • Rep. Reggie Smith (R-Sherman)
  • Rep. Ed Thompson (R-Pearland)
  • Rep. Gary VanDeaver (R-New Boston)
  • The ESA removal amendment was supported by all 64 House Democrats.

    The names of some of those Republicans voting against school choice should be familiar, as they’ve thwarted Republican priorities in the past:

  • Allison, Kacel, King, Kuempel, Lambert, Price and Raney all voted to create a “Office of Health Equity Policy” in the Texas Department of State Health Services.
  • Allison, Bailes, Clardy, Kacel, King, Lambert, Raney and VanDeaver all voted against banning taxpayer-funded lobbying.
  • Geren was Joe Straus’ righthand man for years, and once had an aide file a false child protective services act against his primary opponent, and was one of the main instigators of the vendetta against Ken Paxton.
  • All of them except Clardy, Price and Thompson voted in favor of the Paxton impeachment.
  • Primarying everyone on that list (and, of course, Phelan) would be a good start.

    Following the vote, Governor Greg Abbot declared that “the small minority of pro-union Republicans in the Texas House who voted with the Democrats will not derail the outcome that their voters demand,” but it remains unclear how he can move his school choice agenda after this gutting.

    Abbott has said he’ll veto and education bills without ESAs. He’s also threatened to keep holding special sessions until school choice passes. We’ll see if he follows through.

    Phelan: Aw, Looks Like We Couldn’t Get School Choice Done. Abbott: Eat A Nice Steaming Bowl Of “Fourth Session,” Dade

    Wednesday, November 8th, 2023

    Passing school choice was Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s top priority when he declared a third special session. Dade Phalen, and the left-leaning cabal backing him, had other priorities, namely taking long weekends instead of getting legislative work done. This is despite the Senate passing school choice legislation early in the special session.

    Now Abbott has responded to Phelan’s sloth and antipathy to school choice with another special session.

    Almost as soon as the third special session of 2023 ended, the fourth one began as Gov. Greg Abbott issued his proclamation setting the start for the next special session for 5 p.m. Tuesday — the same day the previous one came to a close.

    The fourth special session is an attempt to pull items across the finish line that stalled out during the October special, including an education savings account program, the creation of a penalty for illegal entry into the state from a foreign nation, border barrier funding, and a medley of school funding measures.

    The proclamation includes:

  • Creating an education savings account program
  • Providing a pay raise to teachers and other school employees
  • Increasing school funding through the basic student allotment
  • Additional school safety and security measures
  • Establishing a state penalty for illegal entry into Texas from a foreign nation, with removal language for state law enforcement
  • Appropriating more funding for the construction of border barriers
  • Allotting more state dollars to fund overtime expenses associated with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s operations in Colony Ridge,/li>

    Abbott said, “The Texas Legislature made progress over the past month protecting Texans from forced COVID-19 vaccinations and increasing penalties for human smuggling.”

    “However, there is more work to be done. I am immediately calling lawmakers back for Special Session #4 to complete their critical work to empower Texas parents to choose the best education pathway for their child while providing billions more in funding for Texas public schools and continuing to boost safety measures in schools.”

    He continued, “We must pass laws that will enhance the safety of all Texans by increasing funding for strategic border barriers and mirroring the federal immigration laws President Joe Biden refuses to enforce. Texas will also arrest people for illegal entry into our state from a foreign nation, and authorize the removal of anyone who illegally enters our state, with penalties up to 20 years in prison for refusing to comply with removal. To crack down on repeated attempts to enter Texas illegally, illegal re-entry will be penalized with up to 20 years in prison. I look forward to working with members of the Texas Legislature to better secure Texas and pass school choice for all Texas families.”

    The school choice issue never really got off the ground in the House during the third special. The Senate passed its plan, but the House never held a hearing on its proposal.

    In the final days, Abbott announced that there was a deal struck, but subsequent statements by Speaker Dade Phelan (R-Beaumont) and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick indicated there wasn’t — at least not one that could be sped through the process in time before the 30-day clock ran out.

  • Also:

    The other items that also stalled out in the Legislature during the third special session include a $1.5 billion appropriation for border barrier construction, the Senate’s version of which encompassed $40 million for state law enforcement overtime aimed at Colony Ridge, and the creation of a state offense for illegal entry into Texas from a foreign nation.

    Now it remains to be seen if Phelan is willing to get his ass in gear, or if the cabal backing him is going to go all out to prevent school choice from being passed in Texas.

    Stay tuned…

    Race Hustler Ibram X. Kendi’s Woke Center Lays Off Most Staff

    Thursday, September 21st, 2023

    Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Woke black Social Justice Warrior activist turns out to use organization to scam white liberals out of money. It happened with #BlackLivesMatter head Patrisse Khan-Cullors and her house-buying spree, and now it’s “anti-racist” Ibram X. Kendi, whose Boston University Center for Antiracist Research just had a massive layoff.

    Boston University hired Ibram X. Kendi to lead its new Center for Antiracist Research in 2020, a year marked by a global pandemic and nationwide racial tension.

    For “nationwide racial tension,” read “#BlackLivesMatter/Antifa rioting.”

    Three years later, after at least $43 million in grants and gifts and what sources say has been an underwhelming output of research, the Center for Antiracist Research laid off almost all of its staff last week.

    Multiple former staff members allege that a mismanagement of funds, high turnover rate and general disorganization have plagued the Center since its inception.

    [Insert shocked face here.]

    The $43 million, according to 2021 budget records obtained by The Daily Free Press, includes general support, such as the $10 million from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, as well as donations for specific projects.

    The document, which is not an all-inclusive list of donors, also lists TJ Maxx’s foundation, Stop & Shop and Peloton as donating over a million dollars.

    Kendi, National Book Award-winning author of “How to Be an Antiracist,” Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and a history professor at BU, founded the Center three years after he founded the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University.

    Kendi talked to BU Today when BU’s Center first launched in 2020.
    “My hope is that it becomes a premier research center for researchers and for practitioners to really solve these intractable racial problems of our time,” Kendi said to BU Today. “Not only will the center seek to make that level of impact, but also work to transform how racial research is done.”

    Social Justice and Critical Race Theory aren’t designed to solve racial problems, they’re designed to make them worse, profit off white guilt, and produce the occasional riot sprees necessary to keep black Americans pulling the (D) lever.

    A week after the layoffs, BU announced Wednesday that they received complaints “focused on the center’s culture and its grant management practices.”

    “We are expanding our inquiry to include the Center’s management culture and the faculty and staff’s experience with it,” BU spokesperson Colin Riley said. “Boston University and Dr. Kendi believe strongly in the Center’s mission, and … he takes strong exception to the allegations made in recent complaints and media reports.”

    The Compliance Services Office received an anonymous complaint in 2021 about the Center from Saida Grundy, an associate professor of sociology at BU and former CAR employee.

    The complaint detailed multiple high-level employees leaving suddenly and allegations of a workplace culture that included fear of retaliation and discrimination.

    After submitting the complaint, Grundy then personally went to then-Provost Jean Morrison in 2021 to discuss the alleged toxic work culture and grant mismanagement, among other significant concerns. Grundy said she sent a follow-up email after the meeting, and Morrison did not reply.

    Discrimination, toxic work culture: Why, it’s as if social justice makes all the problems it claims to solve worse.

    As Provost, Morrison was instrumental in Kendi’s hiring, according to Grundy and BU Today.

    “The pattern of amassing grants without any commitment to producing the research obligated to them continues to be standard operating procedure at CAR,” Grundy wrote to Morrison. “This is not a matter of slow launch. To the best of my knowledge, there is no good faith commitment to fulfilling funded research projects at CAR.”

    I’m sure there’s a good faith commitment to cashing the checks.

    Grundy said the Center ceased communication when her year-long contract came to an end in June 2021, which she said was retaliation for speaking up about the Center’s underwhelming work and impact on campus.

    BU notes an 8% increase in Black enrollment over the past five years as of 2020-2021. The Boston Globe reported in 2021 that out of BU’s 3,030 faculty members, there were 71 Black female instructors, including seven tenured instructors in 2019.

    The University reported the Black undergraduate student population as about 4.8% in the 2021-2022 academic year. Kendi’s hiring and the founding of the Center were BU’s way to address their “race problem,” Grundy said.

    “They don’t want to address Black enrollment because they don’t want to be seen as a school that’s getting Blacker, because they want to raise their prestige,” Grundy said. “That’s the real racism.”

    There’s probably some truth in that. I bet BU is far more interested in giving the appearance of doing something about America’s education system failing black students that actually doing the hard work of doing something about it.

    In a way, diverting money from rich white liberal pockets to the bank accounts of race hustling poverty pimps while producing little-to-no “research” is the ideal outcome for the rest of America, as the money probably does far less harm that way…

    (Hat tip: Dwight.)

    Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden Unilaterally Forgiving Loans

    Saturday, July 1st, 2023

    In all the other Supreme Court news dropping, I didn’t have time to include the fact that the Supremes struck down Biden’s student loan forgiveness executive order.

    The Supreme Court on Friday struck down President Biden’s student-loan-forgiveness program, finding that the statute the administration relied on in issuing the executive order does not give the secretary of education sweeping authority to forgive billions in student loans for tens of millions of Americans.

    In the first of two cases the Court ruled unanimously that the individual plaintiffs lacked the standing to sue because they failed to establish harm. But in the second case, the Court ruled 6-3 that the state of Missouri had standing to sue and convincingly argued that President Biden lacked the authority to forgive student loans for entire categories of borrowers under the HEROES Act.

    The Court’s precedent “requires that Congress speak clearly before a department secretary can unilaterally alter large sections of the American economy,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.

    “The Secretary asserts that the HEROES Act grants him the authority to cancel $430 billion of student loan principal. It does not,” Roberts goes on to write. “We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up.”

    Roberts went on to cite a statement made by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), who in 2021 insisted that President Biden could not exercise executive authority in the name of “debt forgiveness,” to bolster the majority opinion.

    “People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress,” the California Democrat said during a press conference in July 2021.

    Snip.

    In August of last year, the Biden administration announced an executive order that would cancel up to $20,000 in federal student-loan debt for those making less than $125,000 in income per year. The administration invoked the HEROES Act to justify the plan. It was the same statute that was invoked by former president Donald Trump’s education secretary, Betsey DeVos, to pause student-loan payments as well as the accrual of interest early in the pandemic.

    Notice: Pause. Not forgive. There’s a vast difference.

    It was always a crazy idea that the President of the United States could unilaterally forgive someone’s debt. This goes against the entirety of the English/American legal tradition, where debts are considered enforceable unless discharged by an action of the courts (such as in bankruptcy).

    Joe Biden is not a king, nor does the cabal backing and ruling through him have the power to unilaterally forgive debts. We should all be glad the Supreme Court squashed this insane idea.

    Texas A&M’s DEI: Ditching or Faking?

    Monday, March 6th, 2023

    There are conflicting reports on whether Texas A&M, as ordered by Governor Greg Abbott, are actually ending their raidcal leftwing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI, AKA critical race theory, AKA social justice), or just pretending.

    Officially, Texas A&M has ended DEI.

    The Texas A&M University System has moved to remove all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) statements from their employment and admissions practices, it said in a statement on its website.

    Chancellor John Sharp stated that after receiving a letter in February from Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, he ordered a review of all DEI policies in the university system.

    “No university or agency in the A&M System will admit any student, nor hire any employee based on any factor other than merit,” said Sharp.

    A directive was sent to all university system agencies to limit employment and admissions to a cover letter, curriculum vitae, statements about research and teaching philosophies, and professional references.

    A memo obtained from Abbott’s office asserted that DEI policy “has been manipulated to push policies that expressly favor some demographic groups to the detriment of others.”

    The University of Texas (UT) System board chairman Kevin Eltife announced a pause on all DEI efforts during a board of regents meeting last week. The move was prompted by his comments about how “certain DEI efforts have strayed from the original intent.”

    Is there a reason to doubt the sincerity of this effort? Well, John Sharp is a Democrat, albeit one from an era (he was State Comptroller from 1991 through 1999) where there was still a conservative (or at least moderate) wing to the Texas Democratic Party.

    Second, over at Texas Scorecard, Scott Yenor is skeptical of A&M’s sincerity.

    “How Texas A&M Went Woke,” my report from the Claremont Institute, has prompted the Texas A&M administration to respond. First, A&M has reportedly hired someone to continue the process of scrubbing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies from its website. Second, A&M is circulating a memo charging that “misinformation” lies at “the foundation of the report.” A&M compares more than a dozen “Statements from Yenor” against “Facts from Texas A&M University.” But their “facts” are simply the evasions and obfuscations of a guilty party. Their rebuttal presents an object lesson in sophistry.

    One category of sophistry is refuting a charge not made. I contend that that A&M “has more DEI administrators than UT-Austin.” A&M responds that a comparison of “executive-level DEI operations” in central administration shows that A&M has fewer. I say A&M has more total DEI administrators; A&M says it has fewer central administrators. Both statements are true. A&M had many more lower-level DEI officials than UT at the time of the counting. I say that A&M created a diversity committee to consider removing statues on campus; A&M responds that no statues have been removed (yet!). Again, both statements are true. A&M has not refuted anything I said.

    Sometimes, they claim ignorance; A&M evidently has so many DEI programs that it can hardly keep track of them. One is the LEAD program, which trains department chairs in DEI ideology, among other things. A&M is “not aware of a training for department chairs called LEAD.” A snapshot from ADVANCE, the university’s faculty affairs website, shows that this program still exists under a different name.

    Another technique is to deny, deny, deny. A&M administrators describe their own ACES program, which is housed in the Office of Diversity. A&M often lauds ACES as a premier diversity program. It lists ACES in its evaluations of diversity programs. A&M now denies that ACES is “a diversity effort.” Who you gonna believe—A&M or your lying eyes?

    Sometimes A&M concedes that their DEI programs exist, but that they have discontinued them or that they will discontinue them.

    Snip.

    The university has announced in advance how it will get around the A&M system’s recently-announced ban on DEI statements.

    The legislature should defund DEI administrative offices in all Texas universities and colleges. All who are currently employed in such offices should be let go. This will make it clear that DEI is bad for one’s career in Texas higher ed. Second, the Texas legislature should adopt the Kalven Report as a vision for university professionalism. Politicized teaching and disciplines should be judged against the standards of the Kalven Report. If disciplines are so thoroughly infused with DEI ideology or any other leftist activism, the legislature should cease to fund them. Disciplines with DEI inscribed into their DNA should not receive public funds.

    Most importantly, the Board of Regents must take its job more seriously. It must issue directives to eradicate DEI from universities and then follow through with them by firing university presidents who openly defy the Board or obfuscate their DEI efforts. Personnel is policy. The Left has clamored for DEI practices for generations, and university presidents have responded by permitting the DEI bureaucracy to bloat. It is time for these university presidents to fear conservatives in the legislature more than they do the Left, and this can be done only when select university presidents are fired. If this Board of Regents will not do it, then it too must be released and replaced.

    I share Yenor’s skepticism. Those infected with social justice never give up pushing their radical ideology, administration directive or no administration directive. Laying off all DEI personnel is the only way to purge the infection.

    University of Texas Announces DEI Pause

    Saturday, March 4th, 2023

    A lot of conservatives have criticized Governor Greg Abbott’s anti-CRT/DEI/SJW initiatives as all show and no teeth. But there is at least some sign that those directives have had an effect on the people that run the University of Texas system.

    The University of Texas (UT) System will pause all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts, the board of regents announced last week.

    The board chairman Kevin Eltife stated at the start of the meeting he had a comment that was “not an action or discussion item.”

    “The topic of DEI activities on college campuses has received tremendous attention nationally and here in Texas,” Eltife said.

    “We welcome, celebrate, and strive for diversity on our campus with our student and faculty population.”

    “I also think it’s fair to say in recent times, certain DEI efforts have strayed from the original intent to now imposing requirements and actions that, rightfully so, raised the concerns of our policymakers,” he added.

    Eltife went on to announce that all DEI policies would be paused on UT campuses and he will be asking for reports on any current policies still operating.

    “We will await any action from the legislature for implementation by the University of Texas system at the appropriate time, and if needed, the board may consider a uniform DEI policy for the entire UT system,” Eltife said.

    This announcement follows many reported incidents of DEI policies on UT campuses.

    In 2021, Texas Tech University announced it was hiring four new assistant professors for its Department of Biological Sciences. Its social media posts made clear the department’s commitment to DEI hiring.

    The department released a rubric for evaluating new faculty candidates’ diversity statements about how well they understand and have knowledge of “dimensions of diversity.”

    Texas Tech has already released a statement about its steps toward ending DEI hiring and its desire to “always emphasize disciplinary excellence.”

    UT Austin has been accused of using DEI policies to “espouse a clear ideological agenda,” and other reports have shown the pervasiveness of DEI in multiple Texas medical schools.

    A medical school applicant, George Stewart, has filed a lawsuit against six Texas medical schools for alleged willingness to “discriminate on account of race and sex when admitting students by giving discriminatory preferences to females and non-Asian minorities, and by discriminating against whites, Asians, and men.”

    It’s one thing for the board to announce policies, it’s quite another for administrators and department heads to follow them. Right now I would bet some social justice warrior administrators at UT are busy telling their friends on Facebook how they’re going to ignore the board’s directives.

    When we start seeing entire DEI pockets of resistance being laid off the way we’ve seen in Florida and in the private sector, then we’ll know it’s real and not just empty talk.

    DEI Continues To Infect Flagship Texas Universities

    Monday, February 20th, 2023

    Via Texas Scorecard comes two different stories of how radical racist social justice warrior ideology in the form of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion continues to infect Texas universities.

    First up: A University of Texas professor is suing UT officials for violating his First Amendment rights.

    In attempts to silence the professor for speaking out on controversial issues, university administration threatened his job, pay, institute affiliation, research opportunities, and academic freedom.

    Richard Lowery, Ph.D., a tenured finance professor at University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business, said in the complaint, “The officials at the state’s flagship university violated his constitutional right to criticize government officials.”

    In the suit, Lowery claims the university administration “harmed his right to academic freedom.”

    Lowery’s suit explains that the First Amendment “protects the right of public university professors to engage their colleagues and administrators in debate and discussion concerning academic matters, including what should be taught and the school’s ideological direction and balance.”

    According to the Institute for Free Speech, Professor Lowery is “well known” for his “vigorous commentary on university affairs.” Lowery’s articles have been featured in The Hill, The Texas Tribune, the Houston Chronicle, and The College Fix.

    Lowery has also been known to use social media and online opinion articles to “publicly criticize university officials’ actions, and ask elected state-government officials to intervene. He has also used such tools to participate in the sort of academic campus discourse that faculty traditionally pursue.”

    In his articles criticizing UT officials, Lowery specifically calls them out for their approaches on issues such as “critical race theory indoctrination, affirmative action, academic freedom, competence-based performance measures, and the future of capitalism.”

    On multiple occasions, Lowery reported that university administrators are using diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements to filter out “competent” teachers and professors who disagree with the DEI ideology prevailing on campus.

    In response, Lowery claims university administrators “responded with a campaign to silence” him, where they threatened his job, pay, institute affiliation, research opportunities, academic freedom, and labeled his behavior as inviting violence or lacking in civility.

    The suit continues, saying school officials “also allowed, or at least did not retract, a UT employee’s request that police surveil Lowery’s speech, because he might contact politicians or other influential people.”

    “Lowery got the message,” the suit says.

    In response, the professor is seeking to “vindicate” his right of free speech, asking the court to declare the administration’s actions as unconstitutional and restore his First Amendment rights to speak on matters he was previously prevented from speaking on.

    DEI has even infected the university previously considered a bulwark of conservative value, Texas A&M:

    Thought of by many Texans as a relatively conservative university, a new report explains how Texas A&M has “gone woke” in recent years.

    Scott Yenor, a Boise State professor and fellow at the Claremont Institute, explained during a recent interview on The Luke Macias Show how leftist Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies have seeped into the campus.

    DEI programs have come under fire recently for prioritizing factors like race, gender, and sexual orientation over merit in hiring, admission, and curriculum.

    “Texas A&M has this reputation as being one of the more conservative public universities. I know a generation ago when someone asked me where I would send my kids to school, I said the best public university in the country is Texas A&M,” said Yenor.

    But when Yenor began researching DEI programs in college campuses across the country, he found something troubling in Texas.

    The interesting thing about these universities is that they advertise what they’re doing. They have a plan and they’re proud of the plan. And then they go about trying to execute the plan. And Texas A&M announced a very radical diversity plan in 2010 and has been executing it like on steroids the last two years.

    Yenor mentioned recent efforts to take down a statue of former Confederate General and Texas Governor Sul Ross from campus. Though that movement was unsuccessful, Yenoer argued bigger factors are at play.

    “There were attempts to take down statues and, and, you know, other other ways of affecting the campus climate symbolically. But the more important thing is that there’s been a real, real ratcheting up of their understanding of what they have to do. The 2020 diversity plan really concerns breaking down the systems of oppression in words like ‘merit,’ hiring the best person, and things like that,” said Yenor.

    To that end, Yenor pointed out a shocking statistic: Texas A&M University currently has more DEI personnel than the University of Texas at Austin.

    “It’s true at A&M that diversity is the new merit,” said Yenor.

    Governor Greg Abbott issuing a directive banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory doesn’t seem to discouraged social justice warriors from continuing to radicalize Texas higher education. There needs to be sterner measures, including defunding the DEI bureaucracy, followed by pink slips.