University of Michigan Will Spend Millions to Monitor Students' Cultural Sensitivity Progress
Diversity, inclusion, equity. Diversity, inclusion, equity. Diversity, inclusion equity.
The University of Michigan will spend an additional $45 million on new diversity efforts, including a cultural sensitivity training program that will involve the continuous monitoring of students' progress toward greater inclusivity.
What little we know about the program is concerning. The ultimate goal is to subject all students to the "Intercultural Development Inventory" or a similar test that assesses cultural sensitivity. Individual students will then be given "learning plans" that are specifically tailored to them, based on how well they did—in other words, students who are judged to be too insensitive might be given more work to do.
Later, students will take another assessment to ensure that they are making progress.
What is the Intercultural Development Inventory? It's a questionnaire and consultation service. The College Fix's Dave Huber has some experience with this kind of thing:
Unfortunately, I encountered that sort of "training" once. Here was a person whose only "experience" was a day or two-long seminar to become a cultural/diversity "facilitator," and she was lecturing yours truly on Hispanic culture … even though I had studied and lived in Latin America for quite some time.
To say her lesson was full of laughable stereotypes would be an understatement.
It's always a plus to learn more about other cultures. But learning about them is one thing—accepting them as equally valid is quite another. Some people might think—rightly, in my view—that certain post-Enlightenment values of the West are actually morally superior to backward notions about, say, blasphemy, that are still quite popular in the Middle East. In any case, students shouldn't be required to accept the values of other cultures as a precondition of continuing to dwell on campus. Furthermore, the proper place to have conversations about cultural relativity is the classroom: university administrators have no business usurping the faculty and seeking to instruct students as to what they should and should not think.
The university will also spend more money researching diversity at UM, form two diversity committees, build a new multicultural center, and train staff. In total, the university will be spending $85 million on diversity efforts over the next five years.
Tuition increased 3.9 percent at UM this year, as the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's Derek Draplin noted.
There are two great ways to increased actual diversity at the university. One, lower tuition, so that disadvantaged students can actually afford to attend. Two, prioritize the hiring of faculty members who hold a diverse range of views (at most universities, this would mean hiring more conservative and libertarian professors).
UM, like so many other institutions, isn't actually committed to increasing diversity. It's committed to spending a lot of money on five-year-plans filled with meaningless buzzwords. And it's committed to contracting, rather than expanding, the range of acceptable opinions on campus.
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That’s nice.
The ‘you know who else’ joke doesn’t really work here because the best answer actually is either Hitler or Stalin.
Its never lupus Hitler.
I would have said Mao.
You know who else thought that Hitler was supposed to be the answer?
“Hitler” is always the answer. The question is, what is the question?
The question is, what is the question?
What about Aleppo?
What if Gary meant it in the “Who is John Galt?” sense? As in, what’s the point of discussing foreign policy when we are surrounded by warmongers?
Journalist: What would you do about Duterte?
Gary: What is Aleppo?
Who’s on first?
Yes, “Who” is the surname of the man playing first base.
Progs, when asked to compare Trump to a dictator? The correct answer, however, is Mussolini.
Individual students will then be given “learning plans” that are specifically tailored to them, based on how well they did?in other words, students who are judged to be too insensitive might be given more work to do.
And if they refuse?
A trip to the Death Camp of Tolerance.
By comparison, Hitler and Stalin didn’t give you that choice. See, we Americans have so much freedom, it’s sickening!
That is a great album name
Then your F?hrer has no prize
Go fuck yourself is the only appropriate answer.
So the best way to change hearts and make people more empathic is with a big stick. It’s too sad to even ridicule such efforts.
What is the Intercultural Development Inventory? It’s a questionnaire and consultation service.
Huh, and people get paid to provide this service. How can I get in on this racket? Can’t be that hard to fake it.
Design a survey where no matter how a person answers, they are both racist and sexist. Like the one floating around here a while back.
Scientology.
Great at surveys.
…certain post-Enlightenment values of the West are actually morally superior to backward notions about, say, blasphemy, that are still quite popular in the Middle East.
One of Reason’s Muslim contributors might be able to get away with something like this, but not its whitest.
It’s not Islamophobic to be concerned about the efforts of World Jewry to add a guaranteed-to-be-forgotten as one scopes out who the hot chicks are in one’s dorm module to freshmen orientation.
If it weren’t for the good work of men like Soave sounding the alarm, the vaginae of our co-eds nationwide would already be over-following with Brown men’s semen.
Racist. Chechens aren’t Brown.
Indeed. They are quite literally, Caucasian.
How DARE you leave out the Uyghurs, who are Yellow.
Double Racist! Do not pass go, do not collect Reparations. Report to Robby’s Fruit Sushi and Oxygen Bar for reeducation after work.
Uyghurs
You just made that up.
I’m pretty sure that’s just hipster speak for yoghurt.
There are some blonde blue-eyed Uighurs out there, supposedly, descended from a lost Roman legion.
Although more likely they are just descendants of Tocharians. Give us some Tocharian verse, HM.
Pronounced “wigger” and you know how culturally set those people are.
You really think anyone is whiter than Welch?
Gingers aren’t white. They’re gingers.
Going to have to cone with a catchier name for this organization. How about “Cognition Constables”?
Agreed. We need a new name for these Periodical Non-Issues.
Diversity Dickheads?
Justice Jackboots?
Ball Fondlers.
“I needz to check ya piehole.”
How about “Cognition ConstablesSturm Strassen”?
A lot catchier in the mother language.
And the uniforms are divine.
the uniforms are divine.
Hugo Boss!
It’s true, other cultures can be interesting…
I am fond of fondling yokel culture from time to time.
Let’s get down to business, to defeat, the [Redacted]!
Did they send me daughters soldiers, when I asked, for sons soldiers?
You’re a [Redacted] [Redacted] Cis-hetero lot, and you haven’t got a clue,
How could I, make a man soldier out of you?
Thankfully, we’ll have less of this when Hillary is elected! She’ll oppose this nonsense!
No, but the nonsense will be free.
Does it benefit or harm her? That’s the only calculation she makes.
Like the anti-war effort for Obama, when Hillary is finally in office I don’t think she’ll have much use for them really.
If Robby objects to this effort by UM, well then clearly he supports racism*
I mean, i never hear him attacking the racists, so its clear where his sympathies lie
*this also works for accusing people of supporting Trump. Apply as needed
Fallaciously delicious!
It’s spelled phallacious.
Survey says – Soave is a racist
It worked against people supporting the Brexit, too.
OT = Note the super-subtle implication of cause-effect
Yeah, subtle…. They aren’t in the bag at all and how dare you imply that.
There’s nothing else going on in the world, you see
This sort of idiocy flies right past the people who loudly distinguish between “for profit” and “legitimate” schools.
Obtaining money under false pretenses, I’d call it.
It’s still ok to bully short fat dudes right?
Are they white?
Danny DeVito hardest hit
Are they white?
JINX!
As soon as I hit the submit button I knew I left off two critical pieces of information
CIS
White
In the Progressinomicon, CIS and White are the invocations necessary to summon SHITLORD, a lesser demon in service to the Fat Male, know in the Kabbalah as DONAR TERUMPK, whose number is 369.
and the students will be evaluated on how well they can parrot the multi-culti talking points. anyone offering a divergent opinion will be forced into the re-education class and expelled if they don’t eventually concede to the propaganda.
There’s good reason to believe that whether or not a person is “insensitive” is determined by a range of factors including innate biology. Why does UM want to punish people for being born this way?
On the plus side, it should be fairly easy to bullshit one’s way through the test. Just parrot the most ridiculous sounding SJW parodying shit back to them and you’ll probably get an A+.
In fact, Lady Gaga’s hit “Born This Way” is about how some people are born hating gay people, and about how we should accept them for who they are.
How many inclusion points does a white guy get for banging a black chick?
None. Because he raped her.
-10
No points unless the homo blanco marries the black chick.
An interesting side note: White Males married to Black Females have a lower divorce incidence compared to White Males and White Females. Theories?
Pudding: Table G flavored
Theories?
Black don’t crack.
Sprinkles for your pudding
No points unless the homo blanco marries the black chick.
Sure. Asserting his patriarchal dominion over the colored woman by making her his virtual property will get just scads of inclusion points.
Yes, just look at how well it worked for Brad Torgersen.
Theory: The white men went into the marriage with far higher instance of situational awareness when marrying black women than white women; concurrently, the black women were experiencing a higher increase in financial status on a before/now basis than were the white women.
Just a theory, I’m only up to page 8 and I’m not exactly committing it to memory as I go, here.
Memory? What good is that anymore?
I can’t recall . . .
I think there’s a cultural aspect, too. When you think of stereotypical white wives, the first thing that comes to mind is nagging. Nagging is the most potent poison to a marriage besides adultery. Men are respect driven, and nagging sends the message of “I think you are a man-child.”
Oh, in my edits, I dropped the part where I said I like your theory.
When you think of stereotypical white wives, the first thing that comes to mind is nagging.
Black wives don’t nag? Tell that to Matt Guitar Murphy.
In 1978.
I used to think i was pretty hip to how Hasids worked. But i’m at a loss here.
I’m surprised that growing up in NYC you haven’t heard of kapparot before.
You like chicken soup with matzo balls? This is the price you pay.
More than that – i have a good friend who is Lubavitch, i was part of his wedding party (*the only non jew, which meant i needed to be scrubbed and prepped in many weird ways), and i lived for 13 years in a Satmar enclave.
I saw chickens, but i assumed they were for dinner.
Oh fuck yes, just when I was running out of SIV material.
if indigenous people and their civilization was so damn great, they would not have been so thoroughly dominated by a superior culture.
There’s always got to be at least one idiot in any thread.
It’s going to be so fun when their grandkids will be in thrall to the Chinese.
It’s the pants, no one can resist those pants
Wacky-D can dance!
We have three. Ain’t we grand?
Islam must be the most superior culture there is, then.
I was thinking the Mongol horde was pretty superior.
They tended to absorb rather than dominate the cultures they conquered. I’d say Islam wins for pure domination of other cultures and belief systems. That is kind of the whole point, after all.
I suppose Christendom has some going for it as well, having completely dominated in the Americas and most of Europe, but Islam edges them out if you are going on population.
Nope, get the hordes off the steppes and they tended to settle down into agrarian lifestyles pretty quickly, and then lose their military dominance (thirty years in the saddle with a bow tends to make you an expert in being a horse archer, thirty years growing rice in Manchuria? Not so much). There’s a reason why groups like the Golden Horde and the Chagatai lasted the longest, and it’s because they stuck to the steppes mostly.
Yeah, those Indians should have invented a cure for small pox and other diseases before white people showed up. What the fuck were they thinking?
Who doesn’t remember how great Europeans were at treating syphilis after it showed up?
They didn’t sacrifice enough humans to their Mayan Gods.
So, their Mayan Gods lost and the Hebrew God won.
Damned anti-vaxers
When I think “superior cultures” I tend to think “Nietzschean warrior-poets” not “loud mouthed ignorant internet commentators claiming credit for the actions of their much more physically fit and intelligent ancestors.”
being taught by somebody who doesn’t know jack shit about said other cultures
I’m not sure that that counts as learning about other cultures, strictly speaking.
An ignoramus can read off of a powerpoint just as well as somebody who has actually been to Mexico.
Fair point, I wasn’t thinking of that.
I’m going to go ahead and say that it is in fact always good to learn more about other cultures. Be it good things or bad. Not sure why it should annoy you to say so. Knowledge is a good thing.
Learning how fucked up other cultures are is a significant part of the value of learning about them. Or should be. But I’m guessing that’s not what the U of M is thinking of here.
Ah, I caught it, Rico.
DIE, DIE, DIE!
Jesus Christ. Do you want people to vote for Trump? Because this is how you get people to vote for Trump. Moral indoctrination in the guise of eliminating moral indoctrination is still moral indoctrination. Teaching kids that the right way to view things is that there’s no right way to view things is still teaching them that there’s a right way to view things. Are you actually teaching your kids what your culture even is before you jump right in there and start teaching them what’s “problematic” about your culture? Or do they know more about other cultures than their own because nobody’s ever taught them anything other than that their culture is bad and literally every other culture imaginable is superior to their own? Do you even have any “cultural sensitivity” toward your own goddamn culture? It’s fine to teach kids their history “warts and all” but you’re not teaching “warts and all” when you only teach the warts. And how much “cultural sensitivity” you gonna display toward my culture, which views “cultural sensitivity” as a commie brain-washing plot that needs to be stamped out, with flame-throwers if necessary? And how much does it matter when my culture has flame-throwers and your culture teaches you not to defend your own culture?
Here’s a quick test of the “cultural sensitivity” your kids are beig taught – ask them to name five things problematic about American culture. Now ask them to name one fucking thing problematic about any other culture on the planet. They’ll know all about the problems with American culture, they’ve never been taught that any other culture has even a single flaw. That’s not “sensitivity”, that’s brainwashing.
There are two great ways to increased actual diversity at the university. One, lower tuition, so that disadvantaged students can actually afford to attend.
A few thoughts:
(1) How many “disadvantaged” students don’t already qualify for financial aid?
(2) Why should more disadvantaged students result in greater cultural diversity? I think there are some assumptions here that need to be unpacked before you can get to that result.
You have to give these people a break, Dean; after all, their leaders in their fields have only been out and about in the public for less than a demi-century. No one knew to smash the patriarchy until very recently, no one thought Black Lives Mattered until recently, and no one knew that transgendered folks were pissing in the wrong bathrooms until recently.
The people with your answers are currently studying for their degrees!
Why should more disadvantaged students result in greater cultural diversity?
You seriously don’t think poor people have their own culture, distinct from middle-class culture or upper-class culture? I can guarantee you you’ll find less cultural diversity at the UN then you’ll find in a typical mid-size Southern city, any one big enough to have a “bad” side of town.
I don’t even think it has to be a mid-size city.
I grew up in a town of 12,000. It had a bad side.
It also had one (1) high school, so I went to school with every other kid my age, regardless of race or income. It was, indeed, quite an education.
You seriously don’t think poor people have their own culture
That’s one of those assumptions. What is meant by “disadvantaged”? Is it purely income-based? Or does it have other components, like race, etc.?
Poor people definitely have a different worldview, one that budding ILIs would do well to be familiar with. But calling for more “disadvantaged” students may or may not mean calling for more poor white students.
In this case, I think disadvantaged means poor. In the next sentence he says that increasing diversity of professors means more conservative and libertarian profs, so he does appear to be using a definition of diversity that is not all about race. The use of “actual diversity” (as opposed to just diversity of skin tone and sexual preferences) is also a good sign.
I’d like to agree, but I’d have to get it in writing first.
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Leftists are the same always and everywhere. They don’t learn it from an instruction book. It is just their nature.
Reeducation today, off to camps tomorrow. That is where this road goes.
Monitor student progress – sounds Orwellian.
So, what happens if my son is still a misogynist bigot are all the “education”? Will they deny him his bachelor of science degree?
More importantly, do they refund the tuition money after failing to ‘fix’ him?
Will they start with the basketball and football teams?
If these universities are a reflection of our society, we’re due to turn into a banana republic shortly.
A banana republic as in an entrenched pyramid of bureaucrats who think they run everything, centers of hard power and wealth that really do, countless mobs of ignorant, idle, deranged people constantly at war with each other, and decline.
Everyone who is sickened by the racist and anti-competitive nature of University of Michigan should vote for Donald Trump. Tokenism has no place in the world. Diversity is racism in disguise, it’s a sham, a joke. By voting for Trump we’ll achieve GENUINE acceptance of minorities through education and competition. Stop worrying about peoples emotional sensitivity. Stop being a god damn pussy, I don’t know how else to say it. MAN UP.
But what does Michael Hihn think about this?
While coming to education, the technology has brought many advantages to students and as well as teachers. showbox For example, students can do their homework or assignment with ease and can complete it faster by using the Internet.