After the increasingly powerful conservative group Young America’s Foundation targeted Virginia Tech on Wednesday for threatening students who fail to complete a mandatory online diversity course with fines, the university backed down on Thursday.
On Wednesday, YAF noted that the university’s website threatened students with $105 fines and holds on their accounts if they did not complete a required online course called “DiversityEdu.” The website listed three courses, “Haven,” “DiversityEDU,” and “AlcoholEdu,” then stated: “Students who do not complete the courses by the deadline may be required to pay $105 for an in-person course and/or may have a hold placed on their university record.”
The Division of Student Affairs at Virginia Tech described DiversityEdu like this: “This course teaches skills for engaging successfully with diversity and mitigating the influence of unconscious biases and stereotypical thinking on personal choices and professional decisions.” As Lauren McCue of YAF pointed out, “DiversityEdu’s website is full of references to progressive buzzwords and discusses concepts like critical theory, microaggressions, ‘cultural responsiveness,’ and more.”
But by Thursday, the website was amended so that the fine only applied to students who failed to complete the online course AlcoholEdu, as the website listed the three courses, “Haven,” “DiversityEDU,” and “AlcoholEdu,” then stated: “Students who do not complete the courses by the deadline may incur the following: Haven and DiversityEDU: You may have a registration hold placed on your university account. For AlcoholEDU: you may be required to pay $105 for an in-person course.”
As Emily Jashinsky, the spokeswoman for YAF, wrote as she looked forward: “It cannot be considered a victory for campus conservatives until Virginia Tech ceases to require that students endure the ideologically unbalanced DiversityEdu program altogether.”