by Alex Munguia
The University of Florida spent $38,000 on a new diversity, equity, and inclusion training for students that is “not a requirement,” but has a due date.
The training is similar to those that students take relating to alcohol, drug usage, and sexual harassment. Within the diversity training, students are prompted to take quizzes, watch videos, and read about different issues relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
This new course is part of the university’s wider anti-racism initiative that includes removing its “gator bait” chant, and reviewing name changes for various buildings as well as monuments across campus, according to The Alligator.
One portion of the training criticized the “All Lives Matter” movement, with one student stating that it is opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement. In the training, a number of students appear irritated with a student who supports the phrase “All Lives Matter.”
The training included a video, which told students, “sometimes equality isn’t actually fair.”
Students who take the training also learn about “ideological oppression,” “institutional oppression,” “interpersonal oppression,” and “internalized oppression.” There is also a student in one of the videos who states that one can’t understand the “history of our nation” without “understanding what antiblackness means.”
Campus Reform obtained an email sent to sent to students from the Vice President for Student Affairs, D’Andra Mull (pictured right), which introduced the new “diversity, equity, and inclusion” training, listing a due date of April 1.
The email stated that the training will “explore your role in creating inclusive, respectful communities, and learn about skills including self-care, active listening, and effective allyship,” among other objectives.
Hessy Fernandez, director of the Issues Management & Crisis Communications department at the University of Florida told Campus Reform that this course “is viewed as a building block that may help those who complete it develop critical life skills related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Fernandez stated that the license for the course “cost $38,000 and is available for all students, faculty, and staff.”
“However, the course is not a requirement,” Fernandez said, despite the email informing students, “you have a new assignment” and giving a “due date” of April 1.
Philip Smith, chairman of the Young Americans for Freedom chapter at the University of Florida told Campus Reform that “this training is a waste of time, resources, and focus for the university.”
Smith also said that the training doesn’t help students and is a waste of money.
“If it is to grandstand and be self-congratulatory, then I think the University has done a great job. If this is meant to help students, it’s a miserable waste,” he added.
The program of education workshops and more, as described on the university website, is lead by Mull and University of Florida Vice President Jodi Gentry (pictured left).
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Alex Munguia is a Florida Campus Correspondent with Campus Reform. Alex studies at the University of Florida and majors in Computer Engineering and Information Systems. He is currently a member of Turning Point USA on his campus and a State Content Writer for Convention of States Florida.
Photo “Jodi Gentry” (left) and “D’Andra Mull” (right) by University of Florida.
