Bates College Now Requires Courses Related to ‘Race, Power, Privilege and Colonialism’

Bates College Now Requires Courses Related to ‘Race, Power, Privilege and Colonialism’

Progressive ideas are so popular that they have to be made mandatory.

The College Fix reports:

Bates College green-lights ‘Race, Power, Privilege, Colonialism’ curriculum requirement

Faculty at Maine’s small, private Bates College recently passed a measure which requires all students to take at least two courses related to race, power, privilege and colonialism prior to graduation.

According to The Bates Student, the so-called RPPC mandate will take effect with the class of 2030 (the beginning of the 2026-27 school year).

One course must cover the U.S. while the other an international focus.

Debate on the requirement was extensive, lasting months, and featured several amendments and petitions from concerned academics.

For example, politics Professor Lisa Gilson (pictured) offered an amendment that would require students to take one of the RPPC courses within their major — and taught “by faculty associated with that department.”

“It is not enough for me to have students leave the college knowing that race, power, privilege and colonialism has been influential in the world more broadly,” Gilson said. “It is important for me that the students leave knowing that their own field of study, that they might pursue after college, is in fact shaped by this.”

Gilson added that without her amendment, there would be “more demand on courses that are taught primarily by faculty of color, by junior faculty and by faculty who are already experiencing the consequences of not having curricular requirements of racism and race, privilege, power and colonialism.”

Gilson’s amendment eventually was approved — 88 to 25 with seven abstentions.

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