Social Justice Education in America

1 In the last twenty years a body of “social justice educators” has come to power in American higher education. These professors and administrators are transforming higher education into advocacy for progressive politics. They also work to reserve higher education jobs for social justice advocates, and to train more social justice advocates for careers in nonprofit organizations, K-12 education, and social work. Social Justice Education in America draws upon a close examination of in America Education Justice Social 60 colleges and universities to show how social justice educators have taken over higher education. The report includes recommendations on how to prevent colleges and universities from substituting activism for learning. DAVID RANDALL DAVID SJCover.indd 1 12/3/19 9:41 AM 4 Social Justice Educatio n in America A report by the David Randall Director of Research 5 Social Justice Educatio n in America ISBN: 978-0-9653143-1-2 Cover Design by Beck & Stone © 2019 National Association of Scholars 6 About the National Association of Scholars Mission The National Association of Scholars is an independent membership association of academics and others working to sustain the tradition of reasoned scholarship and civil debate in America’s colleges and universities. We uphold the standards of a liberal arts education that fosters intellectual freedom, searches for the truth, and promotes virtuous citizenship. What We Do We publish a quarterly journal, Academic Questions, which examines the intellectual controversies and the institutional challenges of contemporary higher education. We publish studies of current higher education policy and practice with the aim of drawing attention to weaknesses and stimulating improvements. Our website presents educated opinion and commentary on higher education, and archives our research reports for public access. NAS engages in public advocacy to pass legislation to advance the cause of higher education reform. We file friend-of-the-court briefs in legal cases, defending freedom of speech and conscience, and the civil rights of educators and students. We give testimony before congressional and legislative committees and engage public support for worthy reforms. 7 NAS holds national and regional meetings that focus on important issues and public policy debates in higher education today. Membership NAS membership is open to all who share a commitment to its core principles of fostering intellectual freedom and academic excellence in American higher education. A large majority of our members are current and former faculty members. We also welcome graduate and undergraduate students, teachers, college administrators, and independent scholars, as well as non-academic citizens who care about the future of higher education. NAS members receive a subscription to our journal Academic Questions and access to a network of people who share a commitment to academic freedom and excellence. We offer opportunities to influence key aspects of contemporary higher education. Visit our website, www.nas.org, to learn more about NAS and to become a member. 8 Contents Preface & Acknowledgements 12 Precis 17 Executive Summary 19 Report Structure 27 Prologue: If You Come to San Francisco 31 Introduction 37 Academia’s Radical Drift 37 Social Justice Theory 38 The Concept 38 Political Goals 43 Political Orientation and Activism 45 Social Justice Education 47 The University Environment 53 The Four Strategic Initiatives 54 The Scope of Social Justice Education 56 Evidentiary Basis 57 Recommendations 60 Notes 50 Mission Statements 63 General Education Requirements 69 Distribution Requirements: The Context 70 9 Diversity Requirements 73 Experiential Learning and Other Requirements 78 Loopholes 80 Social Justice Requirements 81 Multiple Requirements 85 Double Counting 86 Financial Costs 87 The Departments 91 Disciplinary Patterns 92 Ideological Pseudo-Disciplines 93 Vocational Training 100 Social Justice Activism 104 Social Justice Writing 108 Social Justice Mathematics 115 Social Justice Education Components 118 Mission Statements 118 Requirements 120 Electives 124 Notable Social Justice Courses 132 Experiential Learning 143 University Administration 149 10 Social Justice Bureaucracies 153 Offices of Student Affairs 156 Offices of First-Year Experience 163 Offices of Community Engagement 165 Offices of Social Justice 169 Offices of Sustainability 172 Offices of Equity and Inclusion 176 Offices of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs 179 Miscellaneous Institutes and Centers 186 Title IX Offices 190 Pervasive Social Justice 193 Social Justice Residence Halls 193 Bias Incident Response Teams 199 Break and Study Abroad Programs 204 Social Justice Events 211 Student Training 217 Social Justice Jobs 223 University Hiring: Social Justice Educators 223 University Hiring: Job Requirements 225 Later Employment 230 Journals 233 11 Accreditation 239 Accreditation Bureaucracy 239 Accreditation for Social Justice 240 Social Justice Initiatives for Accreditation 243 Conclusion 250 Conclusion 253 Social Justice’s Challenge to Higher Education 253 Reform Principles 254 Nine General Reforms 256 Reform Venues 258 Reform Policies 259 Student Non-Cooperation 261 The University Restored 262 Select Bibliography 264 Index 266 12 Preface and Acknowledgments Peter W. Wood President National Association of Scholars ome years ago, in a conversation with the entrepreneur Arthur Rupe, I proposed that he fund a study of the social justice movement on campus. Because it was a conversation and something of a spur-of-the-moment idea, I didn’t have a plan as Sto how exactly the National Association of Scholars would go about this study. But Mr. Rupe liked the idea and decided on the spot to fund it. What lay ahead was a larger challenge than I had imagined. It was as if I had committed to clearing a hundred acres of forest equipped only with a jackknife. “Social justice” was everywhere in higher education. It was the slogan of student activists, the raison d’etre of many academic programs, the research focus of scholars in many fields, part of the formal mission statements of many colleges, and a phrase that rolled off the tongues of sophomores as the smug answer to virtually any question about public policy. Looking for a definition of the term that fit its ten thousand applications proved futile. “Social justice” may have meant particular things to particular people, but in general it signified only an emotional disposition. The term enunciated a sensibility something like this: I dislike the United States and American culture. American society treats people unfairly. American culture elevates the wealthy and the privileged over everybody else. It is oppressive. I’m oppressed. I want to change everything. I especially want to change things in the direction of redistributing wealth and privilege. Those should be taken away from the people I don’t like and given to me and the people I do like. The key to making this happen is to raise awareness among those who are oppressed and who don’t necessarily know they are oppressed. Calling for social justice is a way of bringing people together to overthrow the systemic injustices all around us. 13 This, as I said, is a sensibility, not a definition, but it is a sensibility that can be made to fit with any number of ideological programs. Those who seek to end “genderoppression” find it suits them. Those who seek reparations for slavery and an end to racism find that it suits them as well. Those who fight for open borders, the end of a carbon-based economy, the elimination of meat, the normalization of transgender identity, the end of “broken-windows policing,” the dismantling of the “prison industrial complex,” and the eradication of “Islamophobia” find themselves conforming to this sensibility as well. The shared sensibility makes it seem to the adherents of these disparate causes that they have more in common than the causes themselves would suggest. Under the banner of “social justice,” they are all fighting what looks like the same enemy. They are the fusion party of all those who are alienated from the traditional American republic. The phrase in the Pledge of Allegiance, “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” sounds like a bitter lie to the adherents of the social justice alliance. “One nation?” No, we are two nations: one for the super-rich and one for the people the rich exploit. “Liberty?” No, we live in fear of men/cops/corporations/fossil fuels/ white nationalists, etc. “Justice for all?” Ha, so-called “justice” is privileged people taking care of each other, while ordinary people are kicked to the curb. It takes very little time on a college campus to discover ideas and attitudes like this in wide circulation. Perhaps only a vocal minority of students and faculty members adhere openly and forcefully to this worldview, but nearly everyone has heard it expressed. Students hear it from one another as well as from their more progressive teachers. More than that, it has settled on campuses as a general atmosphere. When someone says “social justice,” he need not spell out the underlying propositions. The ideas and the temperament are taken for granted. By contrast, any critique of the social justice ideology will be familiar to hardly any students and very few faculty members. 14 Usage of “Social Justice” from 1800 to 20081 It is not that such critiques are scarce. The Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek wrote one of the most famous critiques, The Mirage of Social Justice (1976). Hayek is often quoted explaining that “Justice is an attribute of individual action. I can be just or unjust toward my fellow man.” But, according to Hayek, “social justice” is a “meaningless conception.” American libertarians and free market economists have built a library full of Hayek-inspired debunkings of social justice claims. Such efforts have not gone unanswered. The high-end of social justice philosophizing includes rebuttals of Hayek and other efforts to rescue the concept from the triviality. A Swiss Catholic writer, Father Martin Rhonheimer, for example, argues: Hayek’s dismissal of the concept of ‘social justice’ is well-known.

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