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WKU Student Government Votes to Give Black Students Free Tuition

<p>Western Kentucky University&rsquo&semi;s Student Government Association &lpar;SGA&rpar; voted 19-10 this week to provide slavery reparations in the form of free tuition for black students&period; The resolution demands that WKU recognize slavery as a &ldquo&semi;debt that will never be paid&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;We demand reparations for the systemic denial of access to high quality educational opportunities in the form of full and free access for all black people &lpar;including undocumented&comma; currently&comma; and formerly incarcerated people to WKU&rpar;&comma;&rdquo&semi; reads the resolution&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As reported by <em>The Bowling Green Daily News<&sol;em>&comma; the resolution also calls for a reexamination of &ldquo&semi;test-optional admissions and geographically-weighted admissions&comma;&rdquo&semi; claiming that some standardized tests perpetuate &ldquo&semi;white supremacy&rdquo&semi; and are disadvantageous for needy students&period; &nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>SGA President Jay Todd Richey calls the resolution a &ldquo&semi;conversation starter&rdquo&semi; in addressing &ldquo&semi;education&comma; housing&comma; and employment policies&rdquo&semi; that have &ldquo&semi;held back&&num;8221&semi; black students&period; &ldquo&semi;People can debate the prudence of actually eliminating tuition for all black students&comma;&rdquo&semi; continues Richey&comma; &ldquo&semi;and it&rsquo&semi;s extremely unlikely regardless&comma; but the point is to have a real conversation about how we eliminate racial disparities in higher education&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;We need to consider making reparations in the form of more equitable college admissions policies&comma; financial assistance&comma; and campus support and resources&comma; and we hope this provocative statement will launch an important dialogue about &lbrack;how&rsqb; to achieve that&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Dissenters worry that the resolution could increase the financial burden on non-black students&comma; who would in effect have to pay for the free tuition enjoyed by their black classmates&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;It will disadvantage other people from getting the same education&comma;&rdquo&semi; argues SGA Senator William Hurst&period; &ldquo&semi;I am not discounting that there is an obvious disadvantage to African-American students&comma; but this resolution would discriminate against other populations&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In passing this resolution&comma; students at WKU are unwittingly engaging in racism of the worst kind&colon; <em><strong>the bigotry of low expectations<&sol;strong><&sol;em>&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>No student in college today was involved in the slave trade&period; And in fact&comma; most non-Blacks are not descended from slaveholders&period; Historical injustice cannot be rectified with contemporary injustice&period; What this resolution is really saying is&colon; <em><strong>&ldquo&semi;We&comma; the white students&comma; feel sorry for you poor black students&comma; so we want to give you free college tuition&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>This trend isn&&num;8217&semi;t limited to WKU&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to a March 2017 report by the <em>Oregon Association of Scholars<&sol;em>&comma; more and more colleges are relying on &ldquo&semi;diversity statements&rdquo&semi; for faculty hiring and promotion&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>These statements include guarantees that professors will &ldquo&semi;keep the white students from dominating all classroom discussions&&num;8221&semi; or &&num;8220&semi;reflect a commitment to queer visibility&rdquo&semi; or teach students &ldquo&semi;not to thoughtlessly reproduce the standard white and Western model of legitimate knowledge&period;&rdquo&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The 10-campus University of California system recently implemented a mandatory diversity statement for new-hires&period; The criteria used to evaluate a potential professor&rsquo&semi;s commitment to diversity includes whether his or her research addresses &ldquo&semi;race&comma; gender&comma; economic justice&comma; or inequality&comma;&rdquo&semi; notes the Oregon Association&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>These diversity statements reflect liberal ideologies&comma; such as claims for group-based entitlements and the assumption of group victimization&period; Furthermore&comma; they enforce the worrisome &ldquo&semi;special snowflake&rdquo&semi; syndrome and push out non-leftwing scholars&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Oregon Association warns that these diversity statements may become a &ldquo&semi;fifth document&rdquo&semi; in faculty hiring and promotion at US campuses&period; This trend could be problematic for academic freedom and research quality as scholars will &ldquo&semi;spend more time signaling their zealous support and making sure not to challenge students in ways that might be construed as a threat to his ideology&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s note&colon;<&sol;strong> This was the influence of Obama on our young people&period; They are so fooled into this kind of drivel they are unable to get past the propoganda and see what equality really means&period; &nbsp&semi;&&num;8220&semi;Life&comma; Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness&&num;8221&semi; is the promise to Americans&period; Expecting failure from certain Americans is true bigotry&period; Giving charity and handouts based on race is not only racist in itself&comma; but a new kind of enslavement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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