To support professors who have demonstrated “commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion,” the University of Michigan plans to award 5 professors with $20,000 annually over 5 years, totaling $500,000 for the first group of professors.
According to a news release from the university, “the new designation will recognize senior faculty who have shown a commitment to the university’s ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion through their scholarship, teaching, or service and engagement.”
The annual $20,000 reward is supposed to fund scholarly and professional labor of the professors, however according to the letter written by Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Martin Philbert, the professors are not expected to take on any additional research tasks. Given that, apart from the YAF chapter, the university has not brought a conservative speaker in recent memory it’s safe to assume that these awards will go solely to liberal professors. It’s just another case of self-righteous leftists patting themselves on the back for promoting their dystopian vision of reality.
With no end date for the program announced, UMichigan could potentially be shelling out over $1.5 million after just 5 years.
Of course, when the university talks about this dedication to diversity, they’re referring to the liberal-hijacked version of the term– in terms of race, gender, and sexual orientation. However, there is no mention of supporting any sense of ideological diversity or diversity of opinion.
Take, for example, UMichigan’s School of Public Policy Lecture Series. Just a quick scan of their advertised events include “’911, What is your prejudice?”: Racial bias and call-driven policing,’” and “Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police and Punish the Poor.”
The higher education system in America has become a liberal bubble, controlled by liberal administrators, funding liberal events and initiatives to create and encourage liberally indoctrinated students. Leftists have become obsessed with being the most racially diverse and the most gender inclusive, to the point where they shut down any idea that doesn’t meet their radical agenda. What’s so diverse about a university where everyone thinks the same?
It’s a system that cannot and will not be broken, until freedom of thought and diversity of opinion begins to be valued on campuses across the nation.
Newsflash: these funding initiatives will do nothing to encourage open discussion until intellectual diversity is valued at the same level as other characteristics.