Newark Post

Linda    Idaho

Posted at 5:38pm on Monday, November 5th, 2007

Could find nothing about this UD dorm policy, yet it is in Wilmington & Phil papers, in Idaho papers & on major network news:
Dangerous ideas forced upon students, critics claim
By RANDALL CHASE, Associated Press

Posted Wednesday, October 31, 2007
DOVER -- The University of Delaware has come under fire from a civil rights group that claims the school is trying to force dormitory residents to adopt university-approved ideologies on moral and social issues.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, said the university's residence life education program amounts to an "Orwellian" attempt at thought control that violates students' rights to freedom of conscience and freedom from compelled speech.

"FIRE writes to dozens of schools each year in defense of students' individual rights, but we have never encountered a more systematic assault upon individual liberty, dignity, privacy and autonomy of university students than this program," FIRE's director of legal and public advocacy, Samantha Harris, wrote in a letter to UD President Patrick Harker.

According to the Office of Residence Life's diversity vision statement, "The Office of Residence Life, within its offices and its residence halls, will become a place where diversity among people is recognized, valued and demonstrated. Racism, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism and other behaviors and systems that empower some while oppressing others will not be tolerated. Programs, policies, and procedures will reflect the importance and acceptance of diversity. Actions that encourage and promote diversity will be valued and rewarded." The "competencies" that students are expected to achieve include recognizing that "systemic oppression exists in our society."

"Students will understand they have stereotypes and they will begin questioning which stereotypes they have," according to the objectives for educational floor meetings led by resident assistants.

Dorm residents are expected to attend the floor sessions, as well as one-on-one training sessions with the resident assistants. Sample questions for the one-on-one sessions include "When were you first made aware of your race?" and "When did you discover your sexual identity?"

According to documents obtained by FIRE, a training session in August was led by Shakti Butler, executive director of California-based World Trust Educational Services. Butler's presentation included a glossary that defines "racist" as synonymous with white supremacist, and one that applies to "all white people" in the U.S. "regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality."

On the other hand, the presentation said, "people of color cannot be racists," and there is no such thing in the United States as "reverse racism," a term "created and used by white people to deny their white privilege."