Education

Inside The ‘Equity Council’ Established Before Evergreen State Protests

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Rob Shimshock Education Reporter
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Evergreen State College, the site of protests that made national headlines in late May, is home to a council that advocates for progressive goals like representational equity across faculty and the hiring of faculty dedicated to equity and inclusion.

Bret Weinstein, the professor who came under fire for resisting a segregation-themed university event, called out Evergreen’s “Equity and Inclusion Council” in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published in late May.

“Commitment to equity begins with the conviction that all students who have completed high school deserve the opportunity to attend college and to obtain an education that will prepare them well forwork [sic], life, and citizenship,” the council’s plan says, using a quote from the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

Evergreen’s Equity and Inclusion Council proceeds to define three kinds of equity: representational equity, resource equity, and “equity-mindedness.” Representational equity strives for proportional representation of “underserved” groups among students and faculty, resource equity involves “closing equity gaps” in achievement among groups, and equity-mindedness concerns the employment of administrators who advance equity.

In a section pertaining to student groups, the council outlines demands from black and transgender student groups. While the transgender group demands obligatory training on pronoun usage for faculty and paid student positions on a bias response team, the black group desires mandatory classes, presumably of a social justice nature, for students.

The equity council proposes adding an “equity justification” for future faculty hires, and also references the college’s search for a vice president of diversity and inclusion, recommending that the position title be changed to “vice president of equity and inclusion.”

Weinstein called the council’s plan authoritarian and claimed that it has introduced a mindset hinged on equality of outcome into Evergreen.

“Equality of outcome is a discredited concept failing on both logical and historical grounds, as anyone knows who has studied the misery of the 20th century,” the professor said. “It wouldn’t have withstood 20 minutes of reasoned discussion.”

The Daily Caller News Foundation reached out to Evergreen State for comment on the council and its plan, but received no comment in time for press.

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