KeynoteUSA—
When police killings of Black people, including George Floyd, sparked racial unrest across the country in 2020, Marie Vergamini decided she wanted to do her part to help address systemic racism.
So Vergamini, a doctoral student and adjunct instructor at Virginia Commonwealth University, joined a committee of faculty and students who were creating a racial literacy curriculum.
Vergamini said they created lessons that covered the history of slavery in the United States, the Jim Crow era, racism against Asian Americans and the national movement to remove Confederate statues, including those in the state capital, Richmond. , which was once the headquarters of the Confederacy.
The curriculum, he said, was designed to benefit students of all races.
“As a white woman, I have a lot of privilege, and rather than being complicit in these systems, I want to change them,” Vergamini said. “My privileges should be basic human rights for everyone.”
The committee planned make racial literacy curriculum part of general education requirements for incoming students. Students would have to take a three-credit course from a list of approved classes, faculty members told KeynoteUSA.
But in May, months before the course mandate was set this fall, the VCU Board of Visitors voted to eliminate the requirement. The Board, which is made up of 16 members appointed by Virginia‘s governor, voted 10-5 against making the curriculum mandatory, according to a statement from the University.
The university said the board was committed to “upholding academic freedom while providing students with flexibility and autonomy in their educational path.”
“This is not about the content of our courses, just the graduation mandate,” VCU Board Chancellor Todd Haymore said in the statement.
The decision came as another Virginia university, George Mason University, announced Yowould postpone a “Just Societies” diversity-themed course requirement for incoming students that was initially going to go into effect in the fall.
In a letter to colleagues, Kenneth D. Walsh, George Mason’s interim executive vice president and provost, said the school would delay implementation of the courses until the 2025-26 academic year.
“This is clearly an issue that generates strong feelings everywhere,” Walsh said. “Ironically, finding a civilized and respectful path forward on these kinds of issues is precisely the kind of activity that ‘Just Societies’ courses aim to help students pursue.”
The courses will remain optional for students at both universities during the next school year.
But decisions to eliminate course requirements at VCU and postponing them at George Mason have faced backlash from faculty and students who say the material is meant to prepare students for the real world by offering a better understanding of the nation’s history of racism and discrimination.
Eliminating the requirement, Vergamini told KeynoteUSA, means that many students would probably not acquire that knowledge.
“It’s just not going to have the impact we need,” he said.
Diversity, equity and inclusion programs and curricula at universities in Virginia and across the country have faced increased scrutiny from lawmakers in recent years. Since 2023, 14 anti-DEI bills have been enacted targeting programs at universities, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education tally.
Earlier this year, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration requested that both VCU and George Mason University provide their course syllabi with diversity topics to “provide greater clarity on what would be required because they were not available online,” said spokesperson Christian Martínez. for Youngkin, he told KeynoteUSA in an email.
Martinez said the governor’s office had heard “concerns from members of the Boards of Visitors, parents, students, alumni and community members about the proposed required courses for college students.”
Youngkin has been a fierce critic of DEI. In 2022, the governor banned the teaching of “inherently divisive concepts, including critical race theory” in K-12 schools. He later defended Martin Brown, his administration’s chief diversity, opportunity and inclusion officer, who faced calls for his resignation for declaring that “DEI is dead,” according to KeynoteUSA affiliate WTVR.
Chip Somodevilla//Keynote USA/Getty Images
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Mignonne Guy, an associate professor in VCU’s Department of African American Studies, said she was first tasked by the university’s president with creating a curriculum to teach students about racial literacy in 2019.
Guy said he established the Committee on Racial Equity faculty group and the Committee on Racial Equity Student Advisory Group to develop criteria for courses that would satisfy a requirement for all VCU undergraduates.
The criteria, according to the university’s website, included teaching about “the historical and current structures of racialized power and privilege, including whiteness,” and the “institutions, policies, and social practices that contribute to and enable racism.”
Guy said having this knowledge is key to addressing systemic racism, or policies and practices that result in unfair treatment of some people based on their race.
Blocking the racial literacy course requirement sends a message to students that “this is not a priority,” Guy said.
“This wasn’t to change students’ minds, it was to give them an opportunity to gain perspective and interrogate our country in ways we haven’t adequately done in the past,” Guy said. “And not just interrogate it, but find solutions for a different way of life.”
Anesia Lawson, a VCU student and president of the university’s NAACP chapter, said she was hopeful the board would support the requirement given all of the committee’s hard work.
Lawson said she and other students attended the board meeting where the vote took place and were disappointed by the outcome.
“It was really heartbreaking,” he said.
Lawson said he reviewed the racial literacy curriculum as it was developed and appreciated that it would teach students how systemic racism intersects with sociology, science, leadership and law, which would benefit her as an aspiring civil rights attorney.
“We really see things through different lenses and not educating people about race and racism is a disadvantage for our society and moving forward,” he said.
Melissa Broeckelman-Post, professor and foundation course director in George Mason’s Department of Communication, said the “Just Societies” courses were intended “to prepare our students for the contemporary world, and employers and accreditors clearly articulate the need.” to demand these learning outcomes.”
“Teachers are deeply concerned that some (the board) Members are trying to interfere with curricular processes that clearly fall within the faculty’s purview,” he said in an email.
But while advocates for diversity and inclusion equity see courses like those offered at VCU and George Mason as essential to understanding racial dynamics in the United States, many Lawmakers and critics who oppose DEI say the classes amount to “indoctrination.”
Ancient United States Ambassador. Robert Pence, who was appointed to the GMU Board of Visitors by Governor Youngkin, echoed these statements during at a May 2 board meeting, adding that he understands why students are passionate about diversity, but he disagrees with the required courses.
“What are you afraid of? That people won’t take this course if you don’t force feed them? That’s what you’re afraid of.”
In his letter, Walsh emphasized that courses in the “Just Societies” curriculum will be offered next year and that the delay will only affect the school’s decision about whether they are necessary.
“We need to consider that the concerns raised by these constituencies suggest that our case for establishing this requirement is not as clear and compelling to those communities as it is to our students and teachers,” Walsh wrote. “The depth of disagreement on this issue requires more work to bring opposing interests to greater agreement.”
Keynote USA
For the Latest Local News, Follow Keynote USA Local on Twitter.