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Ideological Reeducation at University of Delaware
The University of Delaware subjects students in its residence halls to a shocking program of ideological reeducation that is referred to in the university's own materials as a "treatment" for students' incorrect attitudes and beliefs. The Orwellian program requires the approximately 7,000 students in Delawares residence halls to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy, and environmentalism. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is calling for the total dismantling of the program, which is a flagrant violation of students' rights to freedom of conscience and freedom from compelled speech.The universitys views are forced on students through a comprehensive manipulation of the residence hall environment, from mandatory training sessions to "sustainability" door decorations. Students living in the universitys eight housing complexes are required to attend training sessions, floor meetings, and one-on-one meetings with their Resident Assistants (RAs). The RAs who facilitate these meetings have received their own intensive training from the university, including a "diversity facilitation training" session at which RAs were taught, among other things, that "[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality." The university suggests that at one-on-one sessions with students, RAs should ask intrusive personal questions such as "When did you discover your sexual identity?" Students who express discomfort with this type of questioning often meet with disapproval from their RAs, who write reports on these one-on-one sessions and deliver these reports to their superiors. One student identified in a write-up as an RAs "worst" one-on-one session was a young woman who stated that she was tired of having "diversity shoved down her throat." This last bit is really disturbing. I just finished reading "Mao, the untold story" and this is EXACTLY TO A T the way that the party cadres were brought into line. You know, not everyone who was a communist thought the same thing. But after one-on-one with local leaders (RAs in this case, what a sinister turn for such an innocuous occupation) the rank-and-file had their opinions permanently changed, and if they ever thought to step out of line later, harsh penalties awaited (in this case, persecution, being expelled from the University, and possibly civil or criminal charges for "racist" thoughts). I'm not even talking about the racism definition above, which is outrageous enough. Posted by: gromky 2007-11-01 |
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