University Of Iowa To Cut Social Justice Classes As Student Interest Declines

One day in the near future people will look back on this era as the moment that America snatched common sense back from the jaws of unmitigated insanity.  Get Woke, Go Broke is becoming a cleansing wind as thousands of companies across the US abandon DEI and social justice programs in an effort to avoid total financial collapse.  That said, the last organizations you probably expected to see dumping their woke initiatives are colleges and universities.  After all, these “institutions of higher learning” have been ground zero for the woke mind virus for decades.

Surprisingly, even universities are now accepting the reality that social justice is a dead ideology walking.  The University of Iowa is following this trend after recently announced that it will be shutting down two social justice related departments and it will eliminate its social justice major as part of an effort to streamline and restructure some humanities offerings.

Under the proposed plan, the college would close the departments of American Studies and Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies, as well as the current majors in American Studies and in Social Justice, which have fewer than 60 students combined.  Administrators will centralize their remaining programs into one program, ostensibly due to lack of interest.

The decision comes as Iowa passes a ban on DEI in public schools.  It is one of six states so far to do so, though it is unclear how much this applies to colleges and social justice related curriculum.  So far, it looks as if the University of Iowa is getting ahead of the coming changes.  Of course, progressive activists and leftist faculty of the school are not happy about this development.

Numerous colleges have been quickly dropping DEI policies and programs in an effort to avoid public backlash (and lawsuits).  For example, the University of Michigan is rolling back multiple DEI initiatives including the practice of legally precarious “Diversity Statements” for anyone applying for a faculty position. The statements, which require a declaration from potential hires on how they will maintain DEI, are solicited from university employers on a case-by-case basis. (Michigan does not have a university-wide policy, but they do not admonish the practice either.)

Diversity statements are used when weighing candidates for hiring, promotion or tenure, and represent a declaration of political fealty.  Those who refuse to provide a statement are unlikely to get a job or a promotion.   

Michigan’s DEI programs have come under scrutiny after a Times investigation found that the university had spent a quarter of a billion dollars since 2016 on DEI efforts, 56% of which went to salaries and benefits for DEI staff. But Black student enrollment, for instance, has hovered near 5% for nearly a decade (it’s currently at 6.1%).

Michigan’s regents have since publicly stated that they plan to reassess DEI efforts, including budgetary commitment. The eight-person regents board, made up of mostly Democrats, makes decisions on the university’s finances and policies.

This kine of policy upheaval in academia was thought impossible only a couple years ago.  A landslide of anti-woke sentiment among the wider public has accelerated the shift way from what many consider to be a political refuge for zealots, degenerates and the mentally ill.  Though there is still much work to be done, the woke movement continues to die a well deserved death.