Leaders for The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education say they are continuing to monitor the University of Delaware, which last year was imposing mandatory "all whites are racist" indoctrination on students in residential halls, because there have been multiple attempts to revive the teachings.
In was a year ago when WND reported on work by FIRE to shut down Delaware's required student training with the stated goals of converting incoming students into "change" agents and providing "treatment" for those who failed.
School officials first defended the program, but later confirmed they were dropping the teachings in light of their apparent conflict with constitutional rights.
Even though school officials assured questioners a year ago that the indoctrination would be halted, officials with the university's residential life department remain "entirely unrepentant" even to this day, according to today's report from FIRE.
"Three times ResLife proposed essentially the same program for 2008-2009, and three times a faculty committee rejected it," stated the report by FIRE's Adam Kissel. "No one has apologized to the students for the pressure and shame, the invasion of privacy, or the other assaults on students' freedom of conscience."
It was just a few months ago when FIRE expressed concern that the teachings, required a year ago for all residential hall students and stated as fact, "all whites racist," were being revived.
University of Delaware President Patrick Harker |
FIRE's concerns, expressed in letters to President Patrick Harker, had been whether, "somehow, the University of Delaware seems terrifyingly unaware that a state-sponsored institution of higher education in the United States does not have the legal right to engage in a program of systematic thought reform."
Now a new detailed report from FIRE is being published in its new journal, called "The Lantern: The Journal of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education," because of the egregious nature of the program.
It was described as "mandatory activities to coerce students to change their thoughts, values, attitudes, beliefs, and habits to conform to a highly specified social, environmental, and political agenda."
"The case continues to have a nationwide impact," according to Kissel.
The report said as the 2009 year was beginning, residential program officials at Delaware "accepted a cosmetic amendment to the proposal – simply inserting the word 'environmental' before each instance of 'sustainability' – without actually changing any of the activities in the program.
"With promises that the program was actually 'traditional' (false), 'optional' (highly suspect), and under new, strict oversight (despite the fact that all the leading ResLife administrators kept their jobs), the Faculty Senate and then the Trustees let the proposal pass," the FIRE report said.
That's one reason for continuing to watch the situation, officials said. The other is clear:
"FIRE has never encountered a more systematic assault upon the individual liberty, dignity, privacy, and autonomy of university students than the University of Delaware's 'treatment' program," the report said.
The report showed in the aftermath of the disastrous program, residential assistants in dorms were "mandated" to speak out against FIRE.
"One refused and was told by Residence Life staff that he would lose his job and the university would not consider him a student anymore. I asked him if he [the RA] would be expelled and he said that was 100 percent correct," the report said.
But even Delaware professors Jan Blits and Linda Gottfredson reported their experiences with a type of thuggery on campus.
"We read ResLife's online materials (most of which were later removed) and were appalled. ResLife was engaging students in mandatory activities designed to change students' thoughts, values, attitudes, beliefs, and habits to conform to a specific, highly politicized set of 'citizenship values' that had been pre-selected as the marks of responsible citizens. Anything deemed remotely 'oppressive' by anyone was to be stamped out, and resident assistants were being taught that '[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality,'" the FIRE report quoted them saying.
The treatment of a female freshman class student was typical of the school's indoctrination, the program said.
"A female freshman arrives for her mandatory one-on-one session in her male RA's dorm room. It is 8:00 p.m. Classes have been in session for about a week. The resident assistant hands her a questionnaire. He tells her it is 'a little questionnaire to help [you] and all the other residents relate to the curriculum.' He adds that they will 'go through every question together and discuss them,'" according to the report.
When the student is asked, "When did you discover your sexual identity?" she responds, "That is none of your d*** business."
Because she did not respond correctly, the residence assistant "becomes so appalled by her resistance that he writes up an incident report and reports her to his superiors,"
the report said.
The mandatory "reprogramming sessions" even had the trappings of a cult, it said.
"After an investigation showed that males demonstrated 'a higher degree of resistance to educational efforts,' one dorm chose to hire 'strong male RAs.' Each such RA 'combats male residents' concepts of traditional male identity' in order to 'ensure the delivery of the curriculum at the same level as in the female floors,'" the report said.
While FIRE reported that new students taking part in residence hall programs this year report they appear to be voluntary, the monitoring must stay, the report said.
"Rather than repudiate the racist teachings and invasive methods of the program, some University of Delaware faculty even worked with the Office of Residence Life to reinstate the agenda," the report said.
When some students did manage to assemble revolts to the original brainwashing, the response from a residence assistant was clear:
"I just wanted to remind you all that floor meetings ARE mandatory. While I am a very understanding person, there is NO WAY that HALF of you weren't able to make it last night. Also, NONE of you e-mailed me about prior commitments...The content is IMPORTANT! Here at the University of Delaware, living in the residence halls is a Living-Learning Experience, meaning that you'll learn just as much, if not MORE, in the residence halls. Like it or not, you all are the future Leaders, and the world is Diverse, so learning to Embrace and Appreciate that diversity is ESSENTIAL," the report cited a residence assistance telling students.
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