The Campus Conservative

(Photo by Justine Warrington, "School" via Flickr) The neo-Marxist takeover is going forward at UT-Tyler. The university has hired yet another diversity officer for the institution, according to AVP Joshua Neaves who made the announcement to faculty on September 15.  The new Director for Student Diversity and Inclusion will help with “enhancing” diversity programs and with “providing training” to students, Neaves said. Moreover, the director’s will also oversee an new “Center for Unity” which, according to its website , seeks to help students understand “narratives” and “intersections” that “make up you and your community.”   Unfortunately, the director’s addition is another step the ongoing, neo-Marxist transformation that is happening at UT-Tyler. Readers should see it as such and realize their need to step-up their participation in university governance in order to preserve traditional values in these institutions.  First of all, consider the highly “political” na...

   (Source: Flickr) Campus conservatives should focus on reforming university policy while they are students as the most effective course of action for their campus advocacy. In the years I have watched student government at UT-Tyler, I have seen how powerfully individual student voices can influence administrators. Administrators are there to listen to students as stakeholders. How well or poorly decision-makers respond to student concerns is an important part of these administrators’ performance review by their superiors. Students have tremendous advocacy power to shape political (policy) outcomes within higher education when they advocate for positive change. Unfortunately, few conservative students seem to realize this truth. Instead, most often it has been the Left who has triumphantly marched through higher education. However, the good news is that conservative students can do this, too. Conservatives can participate in campus community just like anyone else. They ...

  ("Court Gavel - Judge's Gavel - Courtroom", by wp paarz via Flickr) In 2016, student senators amended student government’s constitution to greatly expand the executive branch’s powers. At the time, the senators said that the change was to bring the student forum in line with The United States’ government and other student government models. To do this, they endowed the student body president with the power to veto any senate action he disliked. Likewise, they gave the senate commensurate powers to override the president’s veto provided it has a three-fourth’s majority. Yet, blindly copying for the sake of copying, reformers kept the SGA president in charge of running the senate’s business meetings. This means the very officer who can kill all of its business decisions also runs its meetings. I mean, talk about an injury to the senate’s independence. The presidential veto was a mistake. It makes an authoritarian out of the SGA president and places an unnecessary barr...

  ("Fork roads" by Osmar Miranda via Flickr)  On March 29, UT-Tyler Provost Amir Mirmiran took a question from student government about how the administration would protect respect for cultural diversity in the classroom. Mirmiran replied, “We need to make sure that from admission all the way to retention and everything else, we have policies and processes in place that would ensure a diverse student body.”  Admissions policies that “ensure” a diverse student body? Wow, really? How would they do that? In my mind, the only way to do this is through race-conscious admissions. How else will the university “ensure” that the student body is acceptably racially diverse except by intentionally considering race in each applicant? Currently, UT-Tyler has a merit-based admission standard that allows anyone with a GED (or equivalent) and a 2.75 GPA to attend. But could Provost Mirmiran really be suggesting a change from merit-based admission standards to racially-conscious ones inst...

("exam" by Karl Baron via Flickr ) As UT-Tyler takes on consideration for socioeconomic status, the interest in race and in racial groups increases as it also comes under pressure to support a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) culture. Thankfully, DEI (or JEDI) is no longer a part of the university’s strategic plan. However, popular acceptance of DEI leads to considerations for identity groups, including racial ones and also to looking at others through their skin color, rather through their character and individual characteristics.  Along with this concern, comes an interest in “doing something” for presumably oppressed groups. Affirmative action is just such a thing. It’s the policy that gives Blacks preferential treatment, usually in college admissions, when selecting who can receive admission to a prestigious school. Harvard does it. Yale does it. It is a popular way for universities—as well as employers or other entities—to claim that they are “doing something” for ...