☆ Opinions: Building better colleges isn't all about administration; it's time for teachers to step up, too (5/6)
School of Woke's Kenny Xu and former local DEI Dean Dr. Tabia Lee believe that to reform universities like SJSU, individual instructors must take a stand against destructive ideologies—even, and especially, when tenure's at stake (as with Dr. Lee two years ago). An Opp Now exclusive Q&A.
Opportunity Now: How can colleges pursue true inclusivity with diverse student bodies, both racially and ideologically?
Tabia Lee: A lot of colleges need to install leaders with backbones who will support the original missions of their institutions—critical thinking, diverse opinions, civic discourse, merit. The idea that there are many ways to see a topic or a thing, and letting students decide on their own. These are some of the fundamentals of education that we as educators—it saddens me—have given over to DEI consultants.
What is our charge as educators? What is the purpose of education? We've lost our mission, many of us as individuals and as institutions. And we need to get back to that, kick out these so-called “experts” and focus on developing our students as human beings and active citizens in our society.
Does it make sense to centralize terms like “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” in higher education institutions? Our student bodies are diverse by the very nature of humans being enrolled. Right? There's great diversity in each individual, and that makes up an institution. Adopting dogmatic DEI policies college-wide and infusing it into every study hasn’t helped this at all. Academic disciplines need to become academic disciplines again.
Kenny Xu: I agree: our colleges have become infected. And specifically, in the case of the Woke movement, they were infected by an intentionally divisive sociology that spread and spread through the Academy because it was not challenged or exposed.
The good thing is that students are more likely to see this now than they were 10 years ago.
ON: Or even five years ago?
KX: The illusion that everyone agreed on DEI issues was shattered after this most recent election. It was a huge cultural wake-up call because a lot of these people went, “Wait! Most of America does not agree with me.” Hopefully, this can be the start of universities genuinely opening up to different ideas. But regardless, it’s important that reformers like you and me, Dr. Lee, seize the advantage and win the moment. The fight’s not over yet.
TL: Yes, I can share a personal story there, Mr. Xu. When I was going through the tenure review process that brought me to national attention—and I was exposed as a free thinker and someone who wanted to encourage people to question things and think for themselves—one of my mentors at the time urged me, “Lee, please just be quiet. Don't say anything. Get your tenure. You'll be secure, and then you can start to make all these changes and discuss these things.”
It's a very tempting thing when you’re looking at health benefits, at the possibility of long-term job stability, and your peers and colleagues are telling you, “Just don't say anything.”
By the time I was being given that advice, it was already too late; but that's the culture. And so when you come up through that culture as a faculty member, and you sit in silence for the 4–6 years or however long your tenure process is, guess what happens? At the end of those six years, you continue sitting in silence because you've learned how. You've accepted it. You've submitted to it by that point. And you need to keep doing so for your research grants, your health benefits, for this and that benefit.
Even if their ideology conflicts with your core beliefs, you are part of the problem at that point. You are perpetuating it. It may go against your morals, your values. But you're so in it.
ON: So you're saying that regression (and, to flip it around, positive change) isn't just dependent on administrations. But individual teachers can make a difference, for better or for worse—no matter how granular.
TL: And that is success. When it comes to viewpoints that have become so deeply ingrained, it’s all about the impact you make on that one student, that one person.
Sometimes I would give workshops at the highly ideologically entrenched community college I was at, and only two people would show up. And I'd think, "Wow, was that not successful?" But those two people who showed up—seeds were planted in them.
They might not get manifested tomorrow or in that season. It might be a while later. But I have faith that those seeds will bloom, and those people can then help others push back, ask questions.
Even asking questions like “Why?” really rattles the cages of these ideologues.
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