The latest code words surrounding UW-Madison’s crusade for greater racial and ethnic diversity are “white privilege” and “social justice.”
These additions to the vocabulary on diversity appeared last semester in news reports on student government accountability, multicultural student leadership conferences, the campus Diversity Forum and ASM’s “social justice” programs.
The person leading the charge to link diversity and Plan 2008 to “social justice” is Dean of Students Luoluo Hong. Her actions raise several questions. Do her comments represent a shift in the focus of campus diversity efforts? Is she speaking as a university official? Answers to these questions are important because implementing her vision would have a profound effect on this campus.
The focus on “white privilege” and “social justice” began last fall at UW-Madison’s all-day Diversity Forum. There, participants sought to identify new “solutions” to help reach the goals of Plan 2008.
A morning panel session, co-chaired by the Dean of Students and several diversity program staff members, concluded that Plan 2008 as presently conceived could not succeed until the deep-seated barrier of “white privilege” is removed. “White privilege” means that non-minorities (whites) fail to realize the enormous advantages conferred on them by their “whiteness,” advantages not available to people of color.
The panelists claimed the nature and consequences of “white privilege” are clear — white students feel little or no responsibility to support Plan 2008. Worse, they are alienated from Plan 2008 because its programs focus almost exclusively on minorities. This very fact stigmatizes minorities. That stigma increases their difficulties of performing academically. It undermines the confidence they need to succeed.
In short, Plan 2008 reproduces the very problems it seeks to remedy!
The solution, the panel believed, calls for a campus commitment to “social justice.” It rests on a belief that a “socially just learning community” requires rooting out the inequality and oppression of minorities. It is not enough to concentrate on diversity (increasing minority representation), multiculturalism (celebrating different race and ethnic groups) and climate (building a welcoming climate for minorities).
Instead, a more supportive and comfortable environment must be created by pursuing the all-embracing concept of “social justice.” But, the exact meaning of “social justice” seems to be just as ill defined as the current buzzword, “campus climate.” Until “social justice” can be precisely and understandably defined, programs to promote this goal cannot hope to succeed.
This lack of clarity did not deter panelists from offering their solutions. They proposed a new mandatory seminar for all freshmen, designed to make students aware of “white privilege” and its evil consequences; “Social justice training” for faculty and staff to achieve a similar goal; Also, new search and screen procedures requiring administrators, faculty, and academic staff applicants to express their commitment to “social justice;” And, in the interests of fairness, equal representation on faculty committees: half would be students and the other half a combination of faculty and academic staff.
If this new push for “social justice” were taken seriously, the panelists argued, UW-Madison would be transformed. At last, the campus would become more welcoming to minorities. Unthinking and unaware white students, staff and faculty would be sensitized to their privileged status and shed their last vestiges of racism.
These “solutions” to overcome the failures of Plan 2008 are breathtaking. The inevitable indoctrination occurring in “social justice” programs would go against everything this university represents. It would inhibit the search for truth through the “sifting and winnowing” process.
It would undermine the central purpose of the university with its commitment to the discovery, development, transmission and dissemination of knowledge. It would play havoc with teaching, research and outreach activities.
The reasons for such devastating effects are clear. Modern research universities, much less society in general, have no expertise in engineering “social justice.” Nor is there convincing evidence that universities could quickly and effectively develop such expertise and make good use of it. Finally, whether such engineering would produce the hoped-for effects is not at all clear.
What seems to lie behind concerns about “social justice” and “campus climate?” It is quite simply the absence of what is known as common courtesy, politeness, civility, tolerance and respect for others.
If these attributes are truly important in the modern world, they should be acquired long before students reach college. Families and religious organizations are much better equipped than universities to inculcate these values.
Dean Hong offers a different vision for this university. Will she be suggesting the University’s mission statement must be adapted to embrace the elusive and controversial concept of “social justice”? Will she soon be offering a menu of “social justice” proposals to the campus administration, to ASM, to the Faculty and the Academic Staff Senates, to the Board of Regents and perhaps to the State Legislature?
Chancellor John Wiley, in responding to a question at the Fall Diversity Forum, stated firmly that a mandatory freshmen seminar is not in the cards, for political, economic and logistical reasons. But, was he aware of the other “social justice solutions” being discussed? Since then, the idea of “social justice” keeps cropping up. The most recent occurrence came in the Dean’s discussion of the failures of Plan 2008 at the ASM “social justice awareness week” in late November.
The emergence and apparently growing advocacy for linking campus policies to “social justice” represents a new threat to the integrity of the University. It calls for continued vigilance by students, faculty, academic staff and the public to prevent the spread of this latest “solution” to promote diversity.
W. Lee Hansen ([email protected]) is professor emeritus of economics at the UW.
