Concerns Of The Spread Of ‘Critical Social Justice’ Addressed In TN Legislature Last Session [Op-Ed]

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By Susan Kaestner (founding director of Velocity Convergence) –

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is the administrative structure that is being used to strangle viewpoint diversity and promote radical leftist ideologies on college campuses.

CSJ ideology presents a systemic problem. More administrators are added every year. More strategic plans include goals about promoting diversity, equity and inclusion. More colleges and schools within the universities themselves adopt diversity statements and plans to expand this infrastructure.

DEI is nearly fully grown at UTK, but it is growing throughout Tennessee higher education. No one person is responsible for this trend. No one person can stop it. Those pushing this ideology hope to change Tennessee’s culture and its values. But this DEI mission does not advance the common good or the cause of knowledge.

Reform is unlikely to happen from within. Only Tennessee’s legislature can leverage change in Tennessee higher education. This is going to require a concerted and persistent effort for years to come.

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The positive news is, we were able to work with legislators to advance and pass legislation that directly addresses issues of concern with the spread of Critical Social Justice in our institutions of higher learning. Here are the bills that passed this session and were signed into law:

• HB 2670 & SB 2290: Sponsored by Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton and Senator Mike Bell – who carried the bill for Lt. Governor McNally. You can read the full bill text here. Basically, the legislation ensures the First Amendment right of free speech, while also ensuring that so called “diversity training” and liberal wokeism cannot be forced on students without their consent. It also empowers students and faculty with legal recourse through a private right of action for any individual who believes their rights of free speech have been violated. The legislation states that universities should strengthen and increase intellectual diversity among students and faculty. And, that public universities shall survey students and faculty every two years to assess the campus climate with regard to diversity of thought and respondents’ comfort level with speaking freely on campus, regardless of political affiliation or ideology, with the results being published on the institution’s website. Ultimately, more transparency is a good thing.

• SB 2666 & HB 2568: Sponsored by Senator Mike Bill and Representative John Ragan – provides for a grievance procedure via each university’s website for their employees.

• The Governor’s bill HB 2157 & SB 2410: Sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson and House Majority Leader William Lamberth – will lead to the creation of the Institute for American Civics at the University of Tennessee. This Institute can be an antidote to the cynical, un-American behavior we’re seeing in universities across our nation. Tennessee once again is leading the nation thanks to the leadership of Governor Bill Lee and our state legislature.

We garnered some media attention with coverage from:

• The Federalist: Tennessee Lawmakers Consider Bills To Ban Parts Of Leftwing Indoctrination In Public Colleges

• Tennessee Star: Viewpoint Diversity ‘Strangled’ as Tennessee Colleges Promote ‘Leftist’ Ideologies, Report Says

• Tennessee Conservative: Report Details Spread of “Critical Social Justice” In Tennessee Higher Education

• Tennessee Conservative: In-Depth Report Details “Critical Social Justice” Saturation At UTK

• Tennessee Lookout: Conservative report affects higher education anti-diversity bill

• The Tennessean published the following op-ed Legislation protects free speech and viewpoint diversity at our universities authored by our reports’ three authors. Our piece pushes back on a misleading and inaccurate article published in the Knox News Sentinel.

I also met with legislators and sent letters and emails in support of reinstating standardized testing (i.e. SAT or ACT) for college admissions. And, we are proud to report that all campuses in the UT system will again require standardized test scores for the fall 2023 semester. Standardized tests are strong indicators of a student’s preparedness and likelihood for success in graduating college. We need to ensure we are setting students up for long-term success in higher ed. Standardized testing is also a gate-keeper to admissions being granted on the basis of merit and ensuring fundamental fairness in admissions which requires having transparent standards that are the same for all prospective students. You can learn more via this Tennessean article and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Velocity Convergences Reports Exposing the Rapid Spread of Critical Social Justice (CSJ) in Tennessee’s 11 Public Universities

Our first report titled Critical Social Justice in Tennessee Higher Education: An Overview found that:

• All of Tennessee’s 11 public universities have university-level administrators dedicated to promoting DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion).
• Four of Tennessee’s universities have university-level strategic plans for promoting DEI.
• At least four of Tennessee’s universities have dedicated DEI administrators at the college-level.
• At least eight of Tennessee’s universities have dedicated DEI plans or DEI committees to promote this narrow ideological mission at the college level.

Link to download the full report can be found in the Tennessee Conservative’s article HERE.

Our second follow-up report titled Critical Social Justice at University of Tennessee Knoxville: A Case Study detailed the rapid spread of Critical Social Justice (CSJ) at Tennessee’s flagship university. After the legislature defunded UTK’s annual budget for the Office of Equity and Diversity in 2016, CSJ initiatives are back with a vengeance with a reconstituted Office of Diversity and DEI administrators across the campus just five years later. Our latest report shows this radical transformation in several ways:

• Since the Tennessee Legislature defunded CSJ efforts in 2016, UTK’s administration has built a significant diversity bureaucracy into all aspects of its operation.
• UTK’s spending on CSJ administrators went from nothing in 2017 to well over $1.8 million annually in 2020.
• In 2017, UTK had no upper-level administrators dedicated to advancing CSJ. By 2021, UTK had at least 26 administrators responsible for it, including a vice chancellor, an associate vice chancellor and approximately 12 deans.
• All academic units — from colleges to departments — have developed Diversity Action Plans during the 2020-2021 school year. Hiring, recruitment, retention strategies, community outreach and curriculum are being transformed across UTK as a result.
• UTK undertook a revision of its General Education curriculum to emphasize “service learning” and “global citizenship,” which signals that UTK’s commitment to progressive political activism is being sown into the curriculum.
• At least 26 departments at UTK embrace CSJ.
• Campus speakers sponsored by the university are almost exclusively left-wing and proponents of CSJ.

Link to download the full report can be found in the Tennessee Conservative’s article HERE.

These reports were coauthored and released by The Claremont Institute, Idaho Freedom Foundation and Velocity Convergence.