RAs tagged for ‘microaggressions,’ ‘violations of the woke ethos’
The University of Virginia reportedly pushes “diversity, equity, and inclusion” ideology in its “woke” Resident Advisors program, despite federal orders to eliminate DEI practices, a conservative group of UVA alumni reported.
One policy and education expert told The Fix the school’s practices are both illegal and immoral.
The Jefferson Council reported that the RA program emphasizes race and “gender identity” based on documents and videos the group obtained. RAs mentor students and enforce rules in the dormitories.
“Written descriptions of UVA housing policies avoid the heavy-handed rhetoric of intersectional-oppression ideology, but programs encourage students to focus on their racial, ethnic, religious, sexual and gender identity, according to documents and videos we have reviewed,” Jefferson Council Advisory Board member James Bacon stated, adding “those documents are only the tip of the iceberg.”
Bacon’s sources told him “that events and discussion groups, which leave no documentary trace, often veer into discussions of White privilege and systemic racism.” What’s more, “RAs are tagged for microaggressions and other violations of the woke ethos,” Bacon stated.
He also stated it is difficult to address these issues because the technical DEI terminology has been “scrubbed” from the documents, while the oppressor-victim ideology remains in practice.
Echoing this critique, one RA told Bacon the mandatory training “was predominantly woke, especially [regarding] how to approach different backgrounds and genders.”
“They harp a lot on peoples’ sexual identity, racial and ethnic identities. It’s almost to the point where you’re being indoctrinated into the DEI ideology instead of serving the residents,” the RA said.
Bacon also stated:
Whether intended or not, RA practices encourage students to form friendships with peers who share the same racial and ethnic “identity.” The obsession with identity boomeranged last year when, in assigning RAs to dormitories, Black RAs chose to cluster in the same buildings, leaving mostly White RAs in other dormitories by default. Aghast at the prospect of dormitories dominated by White RAs, the Housing & Residence staff stepped in — overruling the RAs’ tradition of self-governance — to restore racial mixture.
The RA program is meant to operate under student self-governance, similar to the student council. In reality, however, the administration significantly controls its operations, Bacon stated.
Jefferson Council President Joel Gardner told The Fix via email, “While one cannot know for sure, there is a very good chance that the DEI+B RA training will proceed in essentially the same form as it has in the past unless there is a change of leadership at the University.”
“For well over a decade, a DEI political agenda has insinuated itself into every nook and cranny of life at UVA. In order to deconstruct the pervasive DEI apparatus at UVA it will take an enormous concerted effort, which the UVA administration has thus far shown no intention of doing,” he said.
Gardner also said the administration’s efforts largely seem to involve merely reassigning staff and rebranding programs and titles.
“The extent to which this has been done was just revealed explicitly in a letter to the Justice Department from America First Legal,” he said, directing The Fix to the letter.
The council has called for UVA President Jim Ryan to be fired.
The Fix reached out to the Office of the Dean of Students at UVA, the school’s media relations team, and the RA selections team for comment via email and phone call over the last two weeks to confirm these details. None responded.
However, National Association of Scholars Policy Director Teresa Manning told The Fix via email, “The UVA training program is illegal, unconstitutional and immoral.”
She called the training an “unconstitutional top down attempt at thought control and social engineering to pit Americans against each other based on race.”
Its goal is to “further divide and conquer and control the American people to justify expanding the administrative state – rule by bureaucracy- both within universities and in government.”
She said it violates President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting race-baiting, ethnic categorizing, and neo-racist identity politics often masked as DEI.
In addition, the program violates the Supreme Court’s ruling in Students for Fair Admissions, which banned universities from implementing any form of racial preferences.
“University officials are peddling racial grievances to rationalize their bogus DEI jobs even as American students are more ignorant than ever about elementary facts of American history and civics, world politics, and basic finance,” she said.
Manning also said that the Justice Department, as well as Virginia Attorney General, “should immediately stop all public funds to the University of Virginia while they investigate these illegalities.”
“With a very few exceptions such as Hillsdale and Christendom Colleges or Ave Maria and Grand Canyon Universities, American higher education has been almost completely hijacked by anti-American, anti-Western robotic, activist ideologues,” Manning told The Fix.
She said patriotic Americans should steer clear of these co-opted institutions entirely, opting instead for schools like Hillsdale if they seek true education.
MORE: Alumni group calls on UVA to fire President Jim Ryan
IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: The University of Virginia in Charlottesville at night; Felix Lipov/Shutterstock
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