Posts Tagged ‘Valerie Munoz’

UT Austin Still Infected With DEI

Thursday, March 20th, 2025

The lefty sorts running my alma mater these days are at it again. Despite pushes at the state and national level to rid universities of poisonous racist policies, DEI/CRT is still alive and well at the University of Texas at Austin.

A new report shows the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Education is riddled with critical race theory and other leftwing ideologies.

Last year, a state law took effect that requires universities to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices and eliminate discriminatory hiring and training programs. It does not apply to instruction.

Sounds like an oversight to me. Governor Abbott should appoint people to the board of regents who are willing to completely hack DEI out of the system, root and branch.

Nonprofit research organization DeepAudit analyzed 450 UT education syllabi using a machine learning algorithm and identified courses with the highest concentration of CRT and DEI material.

Seven of the ten courses ranked most ideologically-driven fall under the university’s curriculum and instruction department.

DeepAudit’s algorithm scanned for courses that emphasize “equity, diversity, social justice, critical pedagogy, critical consciousness, [and] identitarian political activism.”

According to the nonprofit’s website, its machine learning tool “can help institutions comply with state and federal mandates by using semantic analysis” to assess meaning and context beyond simple keyword searches.

“A reporter investigating DEI and CRT in schools of education would typically have to review every course individually,” reads the report. “Such a process is a barrier to analysis as many schools offer hundreds of education courses.”

“While many have heard reports of critical race theory in schools, few realize how widespread the problem is,” Jonah Davids, a founder of DeepAudit told Texas Scorecard. “These ideas are rarely expressed so openly, and instead are often hidden under labels like ‘culturally-responsive teaching’ and ‘social-emotional learning.’”

“Most legislators, parents, and taxpayers who fund universities have no idea this is happening,” Davids said. “We only looked at one college in one university—who knows how much is out there?”

Foundations of United States Schooling, the UT course that contained the most leftist bias, is required for education majors. It touches on the “development of public schooling in the United States in the context of processes of settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and contests over the meaning of democracy.”

An online summary of the course also says it “examine[s] the politics and policy of education, with special attention to the consequences for students of color, Indigenous students, LGBTQIA students, immigrant students, and students with disabilities.”

Required course readings involved transgender advocacy, decolonization, and critical pedagogy.

According to DeepAudit, the ten UT Austin education courses most infused with CRT are:

  • EDC312 Foundations of United States Schooling
  • EDC319 Qualitative Inquiry and Education for Social Change
  • EDC385G Seminar Program Development and Research
  • EDP382G Cultural Diversity and Individual Differences
  • EDC380F Sociocultural Foundations
  • ELP354S Social Awareness and Critical Consciousness in Student Affairs
  • EDC395T Learning Technologies
  • ELP354D Equity and Diversity Issues in Education
  • EDC395L Language and Literacy Studies
  • EDC391G Gender and Race in Education

While sunlight is the best disinfectant, when it comes to UT and other top university systems, the state political establishment has frequently declared “We like our cozy corruption just fine, so please take your disinfectant away and put back the rock.” Such was the case when UT Board regent Wallace Hall uncovered an admissions scandal, and his reward was Joe Straus trying to indict him.

Still, some progress has been made. Back in 2020, UT disbanded its PC police, and it’s at least appeared to comply with shutting down DEI programs, but more needs to be done.

Despite the overwhelming opposition of the voters and elected leaders at the state and national level, many colleges (UT Austin included) still seem to feel that their primary purpose is to indoctrinate students in the victimhood identity politics of the radical left. Universities, UT Austin included, need severe cuts in funding and heavy supervision until they finally stamp out woke indoctrination on their campuses.

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Posted in Austin, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 2 Comments »

Scalps Taken

Saturday, July 22nd, 2023

It’s easy to get discouraged over the obscene metastasis of creeping social justice infecting our institutions. Even though only something like 15% of Americans back radical leftwing social justice, it often gives the impression of moving from victory to victory.

But it’s important to note that forces of American liberty have won important victories against the woke Borg. Indeed, the good guys have recently taken scalps in the realm of higher education, and those victories are worth noting.

Item one: VMI alumni managed to get that school’s diversity chief to quit.

proactive alumni group working to curb diversity, equity and inclusion at the Virginia Military Institute has been given credit for prompting the school’s DEI chief to quit.

An article in The Washington Post largely cites the actions of proactive alumni, most notably members of “The Spirit of VMI” group, for the decision by Jamica Love to leave her post.

“Love, 49, who leaves her position at the end of June, was the highest-ranking Black woman at the nation’s oldest state-supported military college. But she faced intense backlash from some alumni and cadets as soon as her hiring was announced in May 2021,” the Post reported June 1.

While the Post’s article suggested the dislike of DEI at VMI is due to disgruntled white male alumni, former students there have told The College Fix in recent years they seek to preserve honor and meritocracy at the institute in the face of equity programming. They also said they reject the argument the institute is steeped in racism and sexism.

As The College Fix previously reported, the controversy dates back to a 2021 consultants report that accused VMI of “institutional racism and sexism” and recommended the implementation of new DEI measures.

Last year alumni began actively writing to state lawmakers about their concerns, including Gov. Glenn Younking, as well as voice complaints on social media.

Earlier this year, alumni said they will withhold donations as VMI implements DEI programming.

(Hat tip: Instapundit.)

Item the second: Texas A&M rescinded a journalism professor’s tenure offer after public outcry, causing A&M’s president to resign.

Texas A&M University has been at the focus of a media firestorm this past month after the school walked back the terms of a job offer extended to journalism professor Dr. Kathleen McElroy.

The saga began with the publication of a story by Valerie Munoz, a Texas A&M journalism student, in Texas Scorecard that highlighted the school’s recent decision to hire McElroy as the new department head overseeing the school of journalism. The university offered McElroy tenured status similar to her present faculty position at the University of Texas.

The story pointed to McElroy’s advocacy for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) measures in both academic settings and newsrooms, drawing a contrast between the journalism professor’s approach to education and new state public policy measures passed by the Texas Legislature this year banning DEI offices in public universities.

In addition, the story reported on a statement by McElroy on her approach to journalism, that she opposes the equal representation of all sides of an issue in news reporting if one side is deemed “illegitimate.”

After the story broke, the university began walking back elements of the job offer, causing McElroy to decide to take the details public.

In an interview with the Texas Tribune, McElroy, who is black, stated she felt she was being “judged by race” and maybe gender after the school decided to rescind the tenure offer and instead offer a one-year contract and at-will employment terms. She said she didn’t believe other people would face the same bars or challenges and that she felt “damaged” by the entire process.

The story has since snowballed into national headlines, and outrage over the hiring process has resulted in the resignation of both the university’s interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Jose Luis Bermudez and President Katherine Banks.

If Bermudez and Banks are backers of social justice, and it very much appears they were, their departures (and scalps) are also welcome.

The Texas A&M Faculty Senate recently voted to create a fact-finding committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the alteration of the job offer extended to McElroy. Shortly after that, Banks tendered her resignation to Chancellor John Sharp, writing that the mass negative press on the incident led to the decision.

“The recent challenges regarding Dr. McElroy have made it clear to me that I must retire immediately. The negative press is a distraction from the wonderful work being done here,” Banks wrote.

Numerous reports placed blame on “outside groups” improperly influencing hiring decisions at the school, a claim reportedly started by the faculty senate. That turned attention to one organization of former Aggies in particular, The Rudder Association (TRA).

According to its website, TRA is “a group of dedicated Aggies committed to preserving and perpetuating the core values and unique spirit” of the university.

In a series of press statements on the group’s website, TRA pushed back on reports characterizing its members, which includes taxpayers, tuition payers, and donors to the school, as “outside influence.” In addition, the group said that university regents and elected officials should not be characterized as such either.

Firing by firing, progress is made.

The bad news, of course, is that McElroy is still at UT…

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Posted in Democrats, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 2 Comments »