The American Mind by Scott Yenor 02/13/2023
How Texas A&M Went Woke
Sane Texans must act to remove all traces of DEI in the state.Texas A&M is among the most conservative public universities in America, with a student body well to the right of its peers at other schools. Its traditions of military service and commitments to agriculture and mechanical sciences (the original meaning of A&M) connect it to meritocratic invention.
Yet, for more than a decade, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies have transformed the university. Those governing Texas A&M think the school itself is racist—and they have adopted increasingly radical policies to transform it into a typical, leftist American university.
As I discuss in a newly-released report, radical efforts to transform A&M began with its 2010 Diversity Plan, which sought to achieve greater faculty equity and to transform the campus climate through DEI programming. Diversity, it held, is “an indispensable component of academic excellence.” The 2010 Diversity Plan established two committees to evaluate departments and dole out diversity bonuses to conforming colleges.
Diversicrats began building a DEI empire through faculty equity policies and the promotion of campus climate programming. It started slowly. By 2017, STRIDE training, aimed at revealing the systemic and implicit biases of such fraught categories as “best candidate” and “merit,” was mandatory for faculty assigned to search committees. Similar programs were adopted for tenure and promotion committees. Accountability, Climate, Equity, and Scholarship Faculty Fellows Program (ACES) fellowships sought to recruit minority candidates with “diversity skills” to A&M. Hate reporting systems were adopted to help transform the campus climate.
Over time, however, A&M administrators became frustrated at the campus’s lack of progress toward diverse and equitable inclusivity. The percentage of black students actually fell at A&M between 2010 and 2020, while the percentage of black faculty remained unchanged. More and more students, from all ethnic groups measured, felt excluded from campus life. Then came the death of George Floyd and the madness of the 2020 riots. A&M exploded with demands to remove statues and institute new DEI plans and mandates.
More:
https://americanmind.org/salvo/how-texas-am-went-woke/
