FEATURED
A civil rights complaint has been filed against Colorado State University alleging that certain “pedagogy of discomfort” social work teaching methods constitute illegal race- and sex-based discrimination.
The complaint, filed by Fair for All, was prompted by a now-withdrawn academic paper co-authored by a CSU instructor and a former graduate student that described using classroom practices like confronting white fragility.
Critics contend such tactics created a hostile learning environment for some students that are white, male, or both.
FAIR on Sept. 30 filed the civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against Colorado State University, alleging “discriminatory pedagogical practices” in violation of Title VI and Title IX.
The complaint was spurred by descriptions of pedagogical practices found in a now-withdrawn academic paper published by the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research in July.
In the paper, CSU social work instructor Marie Villescas and former CSU social work graduate student Quinn Hafen, who now works as an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming, detailed their implementation of “interracial teaching partnerships” and the “pedagogy of discomfort” in a pair of 2023 undergraduate social work courses.
They noted that course lessons included topics like “white fragility” and “social work’s role in perpetuating whiteness.” Additionally, in their paper, the scholars described their dismissal of the distress their teaching methods appeared to induce in some of their white and male students as something they referred to as “whitelash.”
A page on the journal website states the article was “withdrawn at the request of the authors.”
Todd Herrenkohl, the journal’s editor in chief, reiterated this to The College Fix in an email, but could not provide further detail regarding why. Although he said it was uncommon, Herrenkoh noted, “sometimes authors do choose to remove their articles from consideration.”
Hafen and Villescas have not responded to The College Fix’s requests for comment.
Critics of DEI’s role in social work education, including Arnold Cantú, a former CSU social work doctoral student who left the program in 2024 over concerns regarding the program’s emphasis on DEI, were quick to condemn the paper and the practices it described.
“I worry especially about undergraduate students, seventeen, eighteen years old, right out of high school, and they’re confronted with this,” Cantú told The College Fix in August.
FAIR’s Tennessee chapter leader, Suzannah Alexander, who claims to have faced similar practices in a counseling program at the University in Tennessee, described the paper as an “embarrassment of a study” and an exemplar of “how social work education has shifted from professional training to activist indoctrination.”
In its OCR complaint, FAIR alleged that CSU exhibited deliberate indifference to the actions of Hafen and Villescas, in part, by their retention of Villescas, who FAIR noted still teaches at CSU.
CSU has not responded to The College Fix’s requests for comment.
Alexander told The College Fix in a telephone interview that the decision to pursue an OCR complaint came about through conversations with Cantú, as well as her own investigation of the study and “that harm had happened.”
In an emailed statement to The College Fix regarding the OCR complaint, Cantú wrote: “Amidst public skepticism of the critiques of DEI, I hope that by shedding a light on this ‘research,’ this can exemplify a good case example in which larger professional organizational bodies effectively provide permission structures for individuals to mistreat others.”
Nathan Gallo, a graduate of CSU’s Master’s of Social Work program, also told The Fix, “FAIR’s OCR complaint is likely the tip of the iceberg in a helping profession overwhelmingly captured by these self-righteous ideas.”
FAIR is asking the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to direct CSU to eliminate discriminatory teaching practices at the institution and “investigate and take appropriate disciplinary action” against scholars who employ the pedagogy.
Moving forward, Monica Harris, executive director of FAIR, told The Fix via email, the Office for Civil Rights will assess FAIR’s complaint and determine “whether they have legal authority to investigate the complaint, whether it was filed timely, and whether it contains sufficient factual detail to allege discrimination.”
If the OCR pursues an investigation, Harris wrote, this would entail “various fact-finding techniques, including reviewing documentary evidence from both parties and conducting interviews with the complainant, university personnel, affected students, and other witnesses.”
“If CSU refuses to comply voluntarily,” she noted, assuming civil rights violations are found to have occurred, “OCR may direct other agencies to withhold federal funding or refer the case to the Department of Justice for legal action.”
“[G]iven that FAIR’s complaint is based on the instructors’ own published documentation of their discriminatory pedagogy, CSU faces strong evidence that would likely support OCR findings,” Harris told The Fix. “This reality may encourage CSU to pursue voluntary resolution rather than risking formal findings of non-compliance.”
MORE: ‘Whitelash’: Professors say white students get angry, frustrated by ‘anti-racist education’
