BUZZ
Calls it an ’embarrassment’ to even be mentioned alongside Hillsdale College and Liberty University
The University of Michigan should not partner with the Department of War on a senior officer training program, according to the school’s Faculty Senate.
In a resolution led by comparative literature Professor Silke-Maria Weineck, the faculty demanded the school reject an offer to participate in the Senior Service College Fellowship Program.
The initiative allows senior military leaders to work on national security research at elite colleges. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recently cut ties between the program and some Ivy League colleges, including Yale University, over concerns about wokeness and “anti-American resentment.”
The Department of War identified University of Michigan as a potential replacement partner.
The resolution stated:
[T]he Department of Defense under Peter Hegseth’s leadership has continuously engaged in conduct broadly considered illegal and constitutive of war crimes, and has attacked the Islamic Republic of Iran without congressional authorization in a war that has already led to the deaths of more than 1500 Iranian civilians, including 200 children, as well as the deaths of at least 13 American troops.
The faculty, in contrast to the school’s pledge to root out DEI, “remains committed to the very principles of inclusion, equity, and diversity that Mr. Hegseth has declared to be incompatible with the
training of US military officers.”
The professors also aligned themselves with the colleges removed from the initiative.
“[The] U-M faculty stands in solidarity with our colleagues at Harvard, Columbia, Brown, Georgetown, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, John Hopkins University, Yale, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and wishes to join them in being rejected by Mr. Hegseth,” they wrote, removing his proper title as secretary.
The main organizer, Professor Weineck, also said she would not want to be part of an initiative that might include Hillsdale College and Liberty University, two well-known conservative schools.
“The list of potential new partners (was) chosen explicitly for ‘minimal public expression in opposition to the department,’” Weineck told the Michigan Daily. “I think the fact that we find ourselves on this list, alongside institutions such as Hillsdale College and Liberty University, is a source of embarrassment and a severe reputational as well as ethical hazard.”
At the same meeting, the university’s faculty senate also demanded that intramural sports allow men who claim to be women to play on the women’s team.
Secretary Hegseth announced the policy change to the senior service program in February to ensure a focus on “rigorous and relevant education.”
