This has become an industry within higher education, and it’s making some people very wealthy.
The College Fix reports:
University of Illinois paid Ibram Kendi $35,000 for 60-minute Q&AProminent antiracist theorist and Boston University Professor Ibram X. Kendi was paid $35,000 by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for a 60-minute question and answer session on October 6.That equates to roughly $583 per minute for the “Keynote Conversation with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi” hosted at the public university.A copy of the contract, provided to The College Fix upon request by the school’s media affairs division, shows the deal also funded up to $10,000 in travel expenses, including a first-class airline ticket, hotel accommodations, and travel to and from the event.Kendi’s fee was paid using unrestricted university funds, a campus spokesperson told The Fix.It appears Kendi’s fee has risen alongside inflation. The University of Virginia in 2021 paid the scholar $32,500, or approximately $541.67 per minute, for his one-hour online appearance that year.Kendi’s UICI appearance was the keynote aspect of “The Chancellor’s Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Symposium.” The event was part of a larger program at the university addressing those topics.The program “is a commitment by our university to put the need to address systemic racism and generationally embedded racial disparity into concrete action,” its website states.It was created in July 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s death, when UIUC Chancellor Robert Jones announced a $2 million annual commitment to fund the program, according to officials.Last week’s symposium showcased 22 projects funded since the program’s launch.Currently the public university is applying an additional $2 million during the 2022-23 school year on another round of critical race theory research, with topics such as “systemic racism and social justice, “law enforcement and criminal justice reform” and disparities in health and health care,” its website states.
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