Public University Offers Professors Cash To Go Woke

A public Tennessee university is offering professors financial incentives for “infusing” social justice into their classes.

The University of Memphis told faculty they could collect a $3,000 stipend for redesigning their curricula to align with the university’s commitment to “diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice,” according to an email sent to all faculty obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The offer is part of the university’s “Eradicating Systemic Racism and Promoting Social Justice Initiative.”

Interested faculty are asked to submit a copy of syllabi to be reworked as well as a 500-word “narrative” on their “diversity, equity, and inclusion philosophy” and how the new lessons will “address disparities” in their subject area.

The University of Memphis’s offer is part of a growing trend on college campuses, where the overt promotion of social justice has become the new norm. At Ohio’s Kenyon College, a small liberal arts school, professors can no longer receive tenure unless they can demonstrate “promotion of an inclusive classroom environment that values diversity.”

{snip} One faculty member who requested anonymity due to fear of retribution said the offer “makes you scratch your head” due to the school’s financial restraints.

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The professor said he’s concerned that otherwise apolitical courses would now be used to turn students into activists.

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The university’s page on promoting social justice states a “need for faculty, staff, and students to become more culturally competent and knowledgeable about all races and cultures in a world made increasingly smaller by globalization.”

“Regrettably, many have not had in-depth training, experience, or exposure to navigate experiences involving cross-racial, cross-cultural issues of diverse groups, but desire training to do so,” the university writes.

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