Cornell Faculty to Vote on ‘Anti-Racism’ Training Mandate

Cornell University’s faculty is set to vote on “anti-racism” training proposals, which will include whether to mandate an educational requirement on “racism, bias and equity” for students and faculty.

The faculty will vote on a set of six resolutions, three of which will focus on “anti-racism” teachings for students, with the other three targeted at faculty, according to a report by National Review.

The report added that a faculty working group has also proposed creating educational programs for faculty to learn about “structural racism, colonialism and injustice,” claiming that this is “an essential part of the job.”

Cornell University’s Faculty Senate is expected to vote on the proposals this week.

William A. Jacobson, a clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School, told National Review that he is “unequivocally against mandates,” and does “not accept what the university and much of academia, I believe, misleadingly calls anti-racism.”

“If you read these proposals, it says that this is what it is on campus, that this is what students and faculty must accept and learn about and I think that’s anti-educational,” Jacobson said. “That’s an ideological mandate that a lot of people disagree with. It’s not in the tradition of the American civil rights movement and they are adopting it as a semi-official or official University ideology.”

Jacobson added that those who remain silent or “have the traditional American civil rights notion that we treat people based upon the content of their character, not the color of their skin,” are called racist.

“There is so much critical race theory and anti-racism, activism, programs, administrative personnel,” Jacobson continued. “The campus is awash in this stuff. If students want to go and participate in that voluntarily, fine. But I don’t think that should be forced on people. I think when you are forcing it on people, you’re now engaging in coercion, not education.”

Critical Race Theory is an academic movement transpiring at schools across the country, teaching children that the United States is fundamentally racist and that they must view every social interaction and person in terms of race or color in order to be “antiracist.”

“Anybody who is on campus knows that it’s already a toxic environment for anybody who disagrees with critical race theory,” Jacobson said. “With the prevailing leftist ideology on campus, it’s absolutely toxic. People are demonized.”

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