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Syracuse Students Unimpressed With University’s Mandatory Diversity Course

Syracuse Students Unimpressed With University’s Mandatory Diversity Course

“if we were using a dartboard analogy, it hit the wall and fell to the floor”

Who can blame these students for being underwhelmed? By the time students reach college today, they’ve been inundated with messages about the importance of diversity for years.

Campus Reform reports:

Syracuse U: Mandatory diversity course ‘didn’t hit the mark’

A mandatory diversity and inclusion course at Syracuse University is being widely labeled as unsuccessful, as students in the program were not engaged, and didn’t feel the course was necessary.

Following a video that surfaced out of the Theta Tau fraternity last spring that contained racist language and included sex acts, according to the Daily Orange, the university responded in one way by mandating all freshman take a course made to talk about “identity and inclusion.”

SEM 100, the name of the five-week pass/fail course, did not perform as it was intended to, according to students and multiple people leading the class.

Amanda Nicholson, the assistant provost and dean of student success said the course was already being made when the situation with Theta Tau fraternity occurred. The video accelerated the campus announcement of the class. However, a campus-wide email sent by Chancellor Kent Syverud stated that the course was created over the summer.

Karen Hall, the assistant director of civic engagement and academic advising in the Renée Crown University Honors Program, worked with the facilitators of the class and helped train them, however, she felt the class missed the mark.

“We value the purpose, but it didn’t hit the mark,” Hall told The Daily Orange. “It went wide of the mark. In fact, if we were using a dartboard analogy, it hit the wall and fell to the floor.”

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Comments

Why? Wasn’t it inclusive enough?

We had a mandatory diversity training at our school a few weeks back.

The speaker was affirmative action at work. She stood in the audience facing her projector and read from paragraphs on slides. To try and appear engaging, she would add “right” or “y’know” after reading a couple sentences. She literally copied her slide material from a book (it still had outline letters and numbers on it). Her privilege as a diversity advocate made her immune to criticism and critique about it.

    Get that “privilege” thinking out of your hear. No one is immune from criticism and critique. You just have to decide to speak up and then do it.

      healthguyfsu in reply to PODKen. | November 20, 2018 at 9:36 am

      Please, I have a wife and family to support and don’t have tenure. Get out of here with your nonsense.

      The department chair has already shut down those brazen and protected enough to say anything about it.