OPINION: UT-Tyler Must Reject JEDI Orientation From Strategic Plan Proposal


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In the coming months, UT-Tyler will propose its new strategic plan to its oversight board, The Board of Regents. In the new plan, the University intends to include a provision to adopt a "JEDI" orientation (a commitment to pursue "justice, equity, diversity and inclusion") as an institutional commitment. This is a big deal. The JEDI tenants all appear nice until one realizes that this is an ideology, not a rational response to fact and evidence.  

Ideological commitments blind a person from the real world since they start with hypotheses rather than facts. In the case of the JEDI framework, the foundational assumption is that disparity of outcomes is always the result of discrimination. Adopting this false assumption in the JEDI ideology into the intuitional plan will create a blind spot in the university and ultimately lead UT-Tyler to be irresponsible with its mission. UT-Tyler should reject the JEDI commitment from its strategic plan so that it can do everything it can to be faithful to its mission. 

Though the JEDI framework sounds like it upholds traditionally noble ideals, in fact it means something quite different. Though the JEDI framework says "justice", it does not mean a traditional as recognition of what is right, such as acknowledgment of inalienable individual rights and the individual's inherent dignity. Instead, it means equalizing outcomes among identity groups. 

When JEDI speaks of “inclusion”, it does not mean merely wanting to welcome others regardless of eccentricity or treating others charitably. Instead, it means seeing others through the lens of power dynamics and excluding any person or influence who could make traditionally marginalized identity groups uncomfortable. (Think “safe spaces”.) 

The JEDI framework means having a totally different orientation to the world while still using some of the same words. It looks familiar and harmless, but in fact, it is quite foreign and revolutionary. 

The JEDI orientation is an ideology, a system built on someone's idea about how the world works rather than a disciplined approach to facts and evidence. It is by definition disconnected from the real world. Ideologies create blind spots in the adherent's mind. They disorient the individual and, more importantly, preclude important facts and evidence that could challenge the ideology's conclusions. 

UT-Tyler's adoption of the JEDI ideology will be no different. The university will misdiagnose situations and erroneously prescribe solutions that won't work for its students as a result of its ideological conformity. How can the university justifiably say it is doing everything it can to be responsible to its mission when it blinds itself to a whole host of evidence that could lead to effective solutions? 

On this path, UT-Tyler will eventually fail in its mission due to its failure to adhere to truths about the real world. This university will become obsolete since, at some point, it will no longer conform to the real world. 

The University should remain open to all facts and evidence, and to the conclusions to which they lead, rather than consign itself wholesale to ideology. Only by adherence to the truth that the university can be a successful --and responsibly--steward fits resources, history and mission. 

UT-Tyler should reject the JEDI commitment from its strategic plan. 

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