Woke university faculty members take center stage in the Lone Star state in just the latest tale the problem with the progressive left’s push for diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus. In this case, it might lead to putting a once-venerable educational institution at risk of unnecessary legal jeopardy over the race, something which even some faculty leaders inside Texas A&M are warning is already afoot.
The Texas A&M University faculty senate on Monday endorsed an affirmative-action program that is currently under legal scrutiny for using taxpayer dollars to hire non-white and non-Asian staff members.
Despite a class-action complaint filed against TAMU on Sept. 10 alleging that the university’s Accountability, Climate, Equity, and Scholarship (ACES) Plus program violates federal law “prohibit[ing] universities that accept federal funds from discriminating on account of race or sex,” faculty senators at TAMU voted 54-12 in support of the project.
The lawsuit also claims….
…the university is violating Title VI and Title IX of the federal Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause by creating and isolating some faculty positions specifically for those racial groups deemed “underrepresented” by TAMU.
That, the complaint states, is evidenced by an email exchange between a professor, whose name is redacted, and the Thomas W. Leland Memorial Chair in Finance Shane A. Johnson. In the exchange, Johnson confirmed his department reserved a faculty spot for an “underrepresented minority.”
Later in the piece by The Federalist, Adam Kolsinski, another faculty member on the senate, points out the obvious discrimination taking place here-and raises an alarm about how this would could hurt the school legally:
“If you are serious about supporting the ACES Plus program goal of moving the structural composition of our faculty to parity with the state of Texas, then we are effectively supporting the replacement of two-thirds to three-quarters of our Asian faculty solely because of their race,” faculty senator Adam Kolasinski, a professor of finance at TAMU, explained before the senate’s ACES vote. “If you support this resolution, I ask you which three-quarters of your Asian colleagues do you want to get rid of?”
According to Kolasinski, supporting this program effectively eliminates potential Asian faculty from hiring eligibility “for like the next decade.”
“By the way, that’s what the ACES Plus program does. It creates new faculty positions to which no Asians need apply,” Kolasinski said.
Kolasinski also expressed concern about the university doubling down on a policy that is a clear legal liability to the school and has yet to be decided in court.
Stay tuned to see how this turns out for Texas A & M-and the students trying to get an education there.
