U. Utah Spending $400K a Year on ‘Dignity Index’ That Scores Political Speech

U. Utah Spending $400K a Year on ‘Dignity Index’ That Scores Political Speech

Dignity is great, but this seems like a waste of time and money.

FOX News reports:

University of Utah spends $400K a year on ‘Dignity Index’ scoring political speech

The University of Utah has launched a program called “The Dignity Index” that rates how statements sound during political or social disagreement on an eight-point scale.

Formally announced in October, according to The Daily Utah Chronicle, the Index is expected to cost $400,000 every year for equipment as well as personnel for the program.

According to the University of Utah, the Index is an “eight-point scale that measures how people talk to each other when they disagree—ranging from ONE, which shows total contempt for the other side, to EIGHT, which shows dignity to everyone, no matter what.”

Tami Pyfer, chief external affairs officer and co-creator of the Dignity Index, said on a university page that the program was started “as a pilot to establish the validity of the Dignity Index itself has grown into an initiative with touch points in 25 states.”

The partnership between the University of Utah and Project UNITE, a nonprofit which created The Dignity Index, initially began in 2022 when the University of Utah used the Index “to use the Dignity Index to score political speech in Utah’s congressional mid-term elections.”

A “youth edition” of The Dignity Index talks about “building skills for dignified disagreement” and also scores speech on an eight-point scale, with a one being, “We have to hurt those people; they deserve it,” a four progressing to, “We’re better than those people; they don’t really belong,” and an eight being, “Each one of us is precious and irreplaceable, so we should treat each other with dignity, no matter what.”

According to Meghan Monroe, senior program associate of K-12 Education at Project UNITE, which created The Dignity Index, the youth edition of the Dignity Index “can be applied to the programs and practices already happening in schools, like those promoting Active Listening and Empathy, which encourage open dialogue where everyone – educators, students, and parents – feels heard, affirming the dignity of each person.”

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