Forestry Department at U. Minnesota Deemed Too White by Campus Activists
“letter calls out the department’s leadership for not mentioning George Floyd’s death while in police custody in its newsletter in June 2020”
The activists have submitted demands, including a way to submit complaints of microaggressions.
The College Fix reports:
UMinnesota forestry department, called too white, hit with list of anti-racism demands
The Department of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota is under fire by students, community members and others who demand its leaders take stronger anti-racism actions or face further protest.
An open letter published in October by campus activists lists 22 demands to address their concerns that the department has upheld “systems of white supremacy and violence … across the 110-year history of forestry at the University of Minnesota.”
The letter points out that the department is “predominantly white” and has not employed a Black faculty member in its history. It also cites a mural painted in 1945 and housed in the Forestry Department’s Green Hall that it calls “racist.”
It also accuses the forestry department, founded in 1910, as being located on stolen Dakota land, adding “a colonial culture and structure continues to persist over a century later through the department’s silence and inaction.”
What’s more, the letter calls out the department’s leadership for not mentioning George Floyd’s death while in police custody in its newsletter in June 2020, noting “there was no mention of George Floyd’s murder, the uprisings in the Twin Cities and across the nation, nor efforts to promote anti-racism work within the department.”
The demand letter has been signed by well over 300 students, graduate students, scholars and community members.
Among its 22 demands, the activists have called for the department’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee to “be a deciding force in creating new faculty position descriptions and approving hiring decisions.”
The activists also want annual anti-racist trainings for faculty, staff and students. Moreover, they’ve demanded a way to submit “confidential complaints regarding sexual misconduct and microaggressions” and want campus leaders to “establish a formal protocol for evaluating faculty who have received multiple complaints.”
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Comments
LOL @ College Fix. You can tell this article wasn’t written by someone who puts out trigger warnings.
“The Department of Forest Resources at the University of Minnesota is under fire…”
I’m curious as to how many of the 300+ signatories are students or faculty within the Forestry department.
Well, to answer my own question, I looked at the petition. And that answer is – minimal. Even subminimal.
I bet their newsletter also didn’t mention Comet NEOWISE, either — that was pretty exceptional, unique to 2020, and had exactly as much to do with forestry as George Floyd.
Of course, camping, RVing, and outdoorsy stuff in general have been officially denounced as “white privilege,” so I bet the Forestry Department has an uphill fight to begin with.
I understand that this school basketball team is “predominantly black.” When will something be done about that, please?
Will they open a Jungle Studies department?
Has there been an increased demand by students of color? Perhaps that Hip Hop Paul Bunyan song got more play on Spotify than was ever hoped.
Do der be a ministry of jungle bungle?
Colleges have become such trivial sinkholes for stupid people.
Minnesota needs a program for cotton/cane/plantation management to go along with melon/berry/chikin’pickin’shuck’n’jivin advanced placement studies program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBn5aIfZElE