In 2009, Wake Forest made a strategic decision to commit to a diversity and inclusion agenda that would change the face of the University. However, this agenda went further than simply increasing the enrollment of minority students or the hiring of diverse faculty. The Strategic Plan to Foster Diversity and Inclusion and its successors ended up fundamentally changing the role of diversity and inclusion on campus and took cultural Marxist dogma from the classroom and applied to the lives of students.
The Strategic Plan
Over the past eight years, a number of centers, institutes, and programs have been created to promote diversity and inclusion, social justice, or identity development at Wake Forest. While none of these concepts seem nefarious on the surface, they come from an ideology that has been injected into student life at every level. When one hears diversity and inclusion, they probably think of equality of opportunity as an essential value. Many would agree that a school which is diverse and inclusive ensures there is an equal opportunity for all qualified students to attend and to integrate into student life.
In a , Wake Forest outlined a very different vision of diversity and inclusion. Instead of just believing in equality of opportunity, the document encourages equity, stating that, “Equity necessitates transforming our campus community to meet the needs, interests and cultural norms of our students, faculty, and staff.” By taking an equity-based view of diversity and inclusion, the University decided that its job was to allocate resources to ensure equal outcomes between different groups of students.
By adopting an equity-based approach that allocated resources based on intersectionality, Wake Forest decided to not treat students equally or based on income when allocating campus life resources. Instead, they chose to distribute resources to students based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion and not individual need.
When the University made the choice to use equity-based principles to allocate resources, they needed some kind of framework to determine which groups students were less powerful on campus and required these resources. The framework of choice for Wake Forest was intersectionality. Intersectionality is a cultural Marxist theory that organizes hierarchies of power based on identity.
The theory posits that people who are a part of a marginalized identity group, like African-Americans, women, LGBTQ individuals, and disabled individuals, are subject to different kinds of oppression like racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. However, according to intersectionality, people who carry more than one of these identities, like a lesbian African-American woman, suffer from a system of oppression that arises from their “intersecting” identities.
Through intersectionality, the University decided that those higher in the power hierarchy, namely straight white males, needed significantly fewer resources from the University than those who are lower in the hierarchy, like African-Americans, Muslims, and women. By adopting an equity-based approach that allocated resources based on intersectionality, Wake Forest decided to not treat students equally or based on income when allocating campus life resources. Instead, they chose to distribute resources to students based on their race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion and not individual need.
Turn to the Left
Between 2009 and 2016, Wake Forest University followed its strategic plan and invested heavily in diversity and inclusion. The Office of Multicultural Affairs grew into a web of centers, institutes, offices that worked to not only provide resources to minority students but also to promote the concepts underpinning their decision making. In 2009, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion was to oversee the growth of the diversity industrial complex at Wake Forest. The LGBTQ Center was in 2011, followed by the Women’s Center 2013, the Pro Humanitate Institute and Anna Julia Cooper Center 2014, the Intercultural Center 2015, and the Social Justice Incubator 2016. These centers generally have a similar format: provide valuable programs for students mixed with programming that promotes the importance of identity, intersectionality, and social justice.
Service, counseling, and mentoring programs that are extremely important to student life at Wake Forest are located within all of these centers. There are counseling and mentoring programs under both the LGBTQ and Intercultural Center that are designed to help new students adjust to life at Wake Forest and support them during their trials and tribulations in college. Almost all of the school’s service initiatives, including Campus Kitchen, Project Pumpkin, Wake N Shake, Hit the Bricks, and DESK are administered by the Pro Humanitate Institute. But outside of essential service opportunities and support systems, these centers and institutes exist to promote leftist ideology.
The sole purpose of the majority of the programming that takes place in Wake Forest’s diversity industrial complex is to promote cultural Marxism. The Intercultural Center hosts “identity development” programs for black and Latino men, black women, and Asian women. The Women’s Center has a L.E.A.V.E (Leaders who Educate, Advocate, and lift Voices for Gender Equity) program for students, where the goal is to “leave” the ever-present patriarchy behind. The LGBTQ Center hosted a speaker in 2016 that advocated for the belief that heterosexuality is “its own unique mode of engaging homosexual sex, a mode characterized by pretense, disidentification, and racialized heteronormative investments.” The Pro Humanitate Institute hosts the BRANCHES Social Justice Retreat every year, where students spend 3.5 days talking about identity. There are too many examples of leftist programming from these centers for me to highlight in this article, and if you are interested in reading more I encourage you to go look through their websites.
Long-Term Transformation of Wake Forest
The underlying goals of Wake Forest’s leftist turn were not just to offer stimulating intellectual discussions, provide support for minority students or increase the University’s diversity. It is, according to the from the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, “long-term transformation,” by fundamentally changing the culture of Wake Forest. The creation of these centers and institutes have recruited or created activist students to facilitate this transformation, provided resources to enforce ideological conformity, and has divided and polarized the Wake Forest student body.
The direct result of creating the diversity industrial complex at Wake Forest is the development of leftist activists. While students often heard Marxist ideas in the classroom, now their entire college life can be based on leftism. Instead of integrating into other parts of campus, students can spend most of their time at the Pro Humanitate house, Social Justice Incubator lounge, or the Women’s Center in Benson. They can attend multiple events every week that are sponsored by these centers, go on retreats and trips, and not spend much time with other Wake Forest students. While they spend their time in these centers, students are indoctrinated with an almost religious belief in equity, intersectionality, and identitarian politics. By manufacturing this base of support, Diversity and Inclusion staff know that they will always have students agitating for their department’s growth, protesting decisions they disagree with in the administration, and giving them significantly more power on campus.
The end result of these changes is division, polarization, and strife within the student body. Conservative, moderate, and even liberal students at Wake Forest are often frustrated by the way the Office of Diversity and Inclusion has divided up our campus based on identity.
These institutions and centers also provide programming for required diversity and inclusion training for students. Beginning this year, student organizations must send one of their leaders to a “diversity education workshop” on campus in order to be recognized by Wake Forest University. Workshops so far have included: Understanding Bias, Beyond the Waves: Understanding Feminism, and LGBTQ “Safe Zone” Training. This requirement exists purely to indoctrinate students and ensure conformity when it comes to any issue surrounding diversity and inclusion. If you don’t conform, students can submit an anonymous bias report to the administration to let them handle the situation.
The end result of these changes is division, polarization, and strife within the student body. Conservative, moderate, and even liberal students at Wake Forest are often frustrated by the way the Office of Diversity and Inclusion has divided up our campus based on identity. Students are usually left with the choice to either accept leftist ideology at face value or be criticized as a racist/sexist/bigot/homophobe for even attempting to question it. But, there are still voices that are willing to point out the problems with equity, intersectionality, and social justice. We’ll know that the long-term transformation of Wake Forest is complete when those voices are silent, or no longer choose to attend institutions of higher learning because they reject free thought.
Ryan Wolfe is an imbecile with the inability to generate a coherent thought. After reading this piece I have no idea what he is criticizing. He just tries to make identity politics scary. I have no idea why he thinks uplifting historically marginalized identities is a bad idea. It seems like he an insecure white heterosexual christian cis male who is afraid of no longer having the institution support him. He is afraid that his leg up in society is hiding the fact that he could actually be the inferior group. I still do not know what alternative model the school should use to allocate resources to underprivledged students after reading this awful excuse for writing. If this form of identitarian rationality is truly “Marxist” then why is identity and not class centered. Ryan Wolfe does not know the most fundamental axioms to Marxism. Class is the praxis of most oppression according to conventional understandings of Marxism. I agree that we as a University should do more to uplift students who come from lower socioeconomic means. We should be a need blind University, and we should shift our culture away from excessive consumerism. Students are too focused on whether they wear the right clothes, talk the right way, havr the flashiest car. I am surprised this degenerate has the audacity to believe his opinions are worth expressing.
Love the name calling Rakin Nasar. Someone disagrees with your leftist views so you just call names. If someone called your “group” inferior there would certainly be an uproar. You call him a degenerate and offer no real answer to his very valid concerns. Keep in classy.
Hi Rakin, you seem pretty upset about someone expressing a different viewpoint than yourself! You definitely proved my “degenerate” friend Ryan’s point here – when you weren’t spitting buzzwords, you were calling him names and talking about how his views “aren’t worth expressing”. People like you are exactly the problem at this university. You became so upset at an opinion different than yours, proving 1. that you rarely hear different opinions (I would encourage you to expand your “diversity” into diversity of thought) and 2. different opinions make you so upset that you’re not capable of rational, adult discussion. I am disappointed that University has failed you so greatly that ideological diversity is unheard of for you. Best of luck in the real world, my friend. And if you would like to get coffee with someone who disagrees with you and have a rational discussion, I am happy to do so!
Funny how he talks about division and doesn’t mention class structure once, even after citing Marx. Hey Ryan, if you don’t want diversity and inclusion, what do you prefer? White supremacy?
Btw, if you think that this person of color is a threat to the social norm that exists at
Wake and the United States, you’re spot on. You want to pretend that fraternities and sororities don’t exclude poor people? Honestly, his argument is so weak.
Rakin, your comment is the exact reason Ryan wrote this article. Thank you for proving a point that the right has been trying g to prove for years. And don’t forget, if you find that our articles hurt your feelings, there are centers for you to go to and be “safe”. Have a great day!
No one is safe from your white supremacy, Madison. And you’re not safe from our revolution.
Ryan,
I applaud you for discussing and bringing to the forefront some key issues here on Wake Forest’s campus. I do have a few questions for you though.
1. Where is the data that allows you to trace this back to the University spending more/allocating more resources for these groups you refer to (Such as the LGTBQ center, PHI, Women’s Center, etc) vs. other programming for “non-marginalized” groups? While on the surface it would appear to students that the University is only funding events/trips/programming for these groups, couldn’t it just be they market these the most? It seems to me that while there are a lot of programs for these groups you’re discussing, they are still heavily outweighed by non-group specific programming on this campus. For example Outdoor Pursuits, Campus Recreation, Wake Alternative Breaks, Hit the Bricks, Wake ‘N Shake , Project Pumpkin(HTB and WNS and Project Pumpkin may be under PHI but are largely student led), CHARGE, Student Union, Student Government, Screamin’ Demons, Fraternities and Sororities, all are programs and student groups who are not geared towards a specific group of people who have a certain identity (or identities) but contain students of all socioeconomic/racial/any other type of background. Just curious if you found data suggesting the University spent more per student in the programs/centers you rattled off then they do on student groups/programs that all students participate in (like those I just listed).
2. Are you criticizing the students for joining these programs you point out? When you say that they can have their entire college life be based on Leftism, is that a bad thing? If they believe different views and want to focus on bettering the local community, fighting for women’s rights, feeding the homeless, fighting for social justice, and hanging out with like-minded and people with similar identities can we dock them for that? It seems your argument aims to criticize the Office of Diversity and Inclusion for using these students to grow their power over the administration. I don’t disagree with that argument, but I do disagree with what seems to be your criticism of students who don’t integrate into other parts of campus. When a student arrives at Wake Forest University, their involvement and time is theirs to do what they want with. Taking advantage of programs they enjoy and find fulfilling shouldn’t be criticized as ‘Not integrating themselves into campus.’ Should the University also shift their focus back to the entire campus and not just these programs/centers? I absolutely think so.
Those are just some thoughts of mine and I’d love to hear what you think about them.
Rakin hit this right on the mark. He is criticizing a politics of fear, a fear that equality is zero-sum. Why are people so scared to hear that maybe there’s a reason the campus the campus is divided? That maybe the programs which Ryan wolfe listed are necessary and that as white people, we can’t know what that feels like because our identities are validated every day on this campus? Where is our empathy? The frustration has roots, and those who commented after Rakin are focusing on people’s response to the problem, not the problem itself.
>”I think racism is a problem”
>”The solution is more racism”
no, absolutely not.
By the way, I have white skin, grew up in a low income family, had to struggle for everything I have, and don’t appreciate the implications that I’m “privileged”.
The concept of “white privilege” is merely white supremacy with a guilty conscience. It implies whites are born superior because of their race.
These comments are symptomatic of the problem with conservatives, they are basically illiterate. There are literally zero arguments presented. I gave pretty clear criticisms based off of the content, or lack thereof, in this article. There is no alternative proposed in this article. I have no idea what anyone should do after reafing this. Should the University stop supporting underprivledged students? There is not even a clear argument as to why supporting underprivledged students is bad. The closest the article gets to an argument is “conservatives need a space too!”. The Wake Forest Review is extensively supported by funding from the conservative political elites, such as the wife of Senator Richard Burr. Conservatives have a “safe space” it is called society. Also, I very clearly criticised his lack of understanding on what Marxism is. Marxism in all of its forms centers class as a primary access point for injustice in the society. This University needs to do a better job of supporting students without socioeconomic access. But, I doubt Ryan Wolfe or any of the other commentors care about people who can’t advance their own socioeconomic status. Here’s proof y’all don’t read. Pete Jackson said “If someone called your “group” inferior there would certainly be an uproar.“ 1. I said Ryan Wolfe is afraid of thinking he is inferior when the institution of Wake Forest starts uplifting everyone else, I never said he is inferior, I just said he is afraid that he might think he is. The distinction is particularly important. 2. The point of intersectionality is that I do not belong to a monolithic group. I am influenced by an intersecting set of sociopolitical forces. Suggesting that I do not listen to other viewpoints is quite ironic considering that no one actually absorbed the arguments I was makingg. I think it is pretty clear that I am engaging with the very minimal content presented in this article. I see zero engagement in any of the comments with my substance or even the substance of the article. Maybe the ad-homs, even though they are warranted, distracted from my argument. There are no distractions, so I dare anyone to give a substantive response.
I’ll give it a shot. Whoever claims that Marxism operates chiefly as an apparatus of economic/class organization simply hasn’t read their Marx enough. Suffice it to say that orthodox Marxism has deep implications for religion, the family, and society, among other things. In this case, the specific models of identity politics described are outgrowths of Gramscian cultural marxism and Frankfort School critical theory- reinterpretations of Marxist dialectics which are nevertheless still fundamentally predicated upon Marx. Marx’s own claim that it is men’s “social existence that determines their consciousness” bears out in the formation of leftist identity politics.
Likewise, I would ask anyone who claims normative identities are affirmed on this campus to provide concrete examples of such explicit affirmations. American society within modernity is hardly conservative, and a threadbare, implicit tolerance of normativity cannot be equated with these overt appeals to left-approved identities. Quite often though, even this tolerance is absent, and our identities are explicitly attacked within classsrooms, extracurriculars, and university institutions. Look at such “theories” as “white/male/straight/cis privilege” or the persistent derision of “whiteness” and “toxic masculinity”; there are veritable litanies of leftist social cudgels repackaged as academic disciplines. What is the logical end of promoting superficial diversity for its own sake while engaging in a systematic devaluation of normative identities? What are the stakes?
Ravi, clearly you are a quite intelligent person, and I mean this very genuinely. I happen to think to an extent that your criticisms are indeed of some validity. Ryan is talking more about a social Marxism than an economic Marxism here; it would help for that to be more clear. Nonetheless, it is rather easy to contextualize given the article’s message. Next, if you are trying to criticize Ryan or conservatives and by extension engage in discourse in the public sphere, you should know a lot better (especially from your time at Wake Forest) to stray away from ad homs. I am a first semester freshman, and even I know that calling people “illiterate” or personal insults “warranted” is no way to convince people to listen to you. Many of the arguments lay out are worthy of discussion and unpacking, but it is very hard for people to be convinced by anything that someone who has a penchant for insults and improper decorum says. Going as far as to point to someone as a “degenerate” exclusively based off of conclusions that they come to and present in a respectful manner is frankly abhorrent, and I would expect a Wake student to hold themselves to a much higher standard than that.
To your point about intersectionality, you are right to point out that people are not just one monolithic “self”, rather the combination of many circumstances that make them who they are. Ryan is not trying to reject this notion altogether, instead he is arguing that the culture associated with intersectionality has come to dominate our campus, and estrange minority groups from the minority, making it impossible to come to any consensus in respectful discourse. Ryan’s point rings true, as you insulted him and conservatives as people (not their ideas, a massive distinction) multiple times in your critiques. I highly doubt anyone in the WFR community would stoop to such a level.
Finally, I take objection to your point about “society” being a safe space for conservatives. If this is true, then why are true principled conservatives such as Bob Corker, Jeff Flake, and John McCain being bombarded with criticism for speaking out against President Trump’s populism that has infected the GOP? Why is Mitch McConnell (as flawed as he is) being scolded by his constituents for asking Roy Moore to drop out of the race in Alabama due to his sexual misconduct? It seems that true conservatives these days pay a massive political price and are subject to stigmatization for standing on principle, so I really don’t know where your coming from with such a far-reaching and irresponsible claim. Just because WFR is funded by who it is funded by does not mean they dictate any of the content that we put out. Read my articles, and see the massive difference in opinion I have on issues with further right of center colleagues of mind. WFR values free thought and free speech above all else, and thus I again think you are severely misguided in your comments.
In the future, I would advise you not to insult my colleagues on baseless grounds–it adds nothing to your points and doesn’t solve any issues. I respect your opinions, but it makes it much harder to do so when you feel the need to make things personal.
Feel free to reach out if you would like to discuss further. I hope you read this with respect, as I have held myself to the same standard in addressing you.
Sure I can take a crack at this.
So upfront my premise is going to be that you do not understand rather than you do not listen.
To start,
You say “After reading this piece I have no idea what he is criticizing. He just tries to make identity politics scary. I have no idea why he thinks uplifting historically marginalized identities is a bad idea. It seems like he an insecure white heterosexual christian cis male who is afraid of no longer having the institution support him. He is afraid that his leg up in society is hiding the fact that he could actually be the inferior group.”
Everything you say here is rhetoric. It is a learned response. “Trained” if you will. None of what you said here is founded on cogent thought. You have no basis in reality for this opinion. It is simply you repeating what you were told by Professors, Youtube, Internet, Tumblr (where ever you derive your information that shapes your opinion ). You make an assumption about the author based on his race, gender, and sexuality yet claim to embrace Intersectionality which you allege is a means to individualize someone…by somehow grouping that person by means of arbitrary characteristics.
Intersectionality is BASED on Marxism. While Marxism focuses on the differences in socioeconomic class, Intersectionality attempts to create the same dichotomy of by taking a person’s arbitrary characteristics (Sex, race, gender, sexuality) and then grouping peoples into a dynamic of power and oppression even though the power dynamic does not actually or naturally exist. It only exists in a state of mind.
Give you an example. Allegedly, white people oppress black people. Arrests, incarceration, welfare, single motherhood, everything that prevents economic mobility is all the fault of racism from white people. Not one time is this ever a consequence of the choices of the individual black person or their community. Never is it because of the ghetto culture that perpetuates the idea that getting an education means you are acting white and should be ostracized. It could never be that education, the single greatest factor of upward socioeconomic mobility is actively discouraged within predominantly black inner city culture. No, it is because they are black and white people hate black people and they suffer institutionalized oppression. Which in order to hold this to be true we must discard the fact that Black people from a different culture, namely Nigerians and Kenyans are kicking butt. They routinely graduate with honors and have a high success rate in college. 50% are undergrads, 37% have a bachelor’s, 17% have a master’s, and 4% have a PhD. But they are also black, so wouldn’t they face the same discrimination? Or is it actually because their parents tell them education is the most important responsiblilty they have and then help create the habits needed to be successful.
You claim that “Class is the praxis of most oppression according to conventional understandings of Marxism”. Which it is. And which Intersectionality tries to replicate. The problem Intersectionality faces though is that Capitalism is the only system that has ever resulted in less poverty and more upward economic mobility. So since intersectionality can not use socioeconomic class distribution because of active economic mobility, it is forced to create systems of oppression based on race, gender, etc.
White must opress black. Men must oppress women. Hetero must oppress homo. Cis must oppress trans. As you say “The point of intersectionality is that I do not belong to a monolithic group. I am influenced by an intersecting set of sociopolitical forces.” So in spite of your claim to individuality, you then proceed to group yourself and other people by means of a collectivist ideology. Somehow, before you learned this ideology, you were mentally incapable of viewing yourself or anyone else as a person or an individual. Someone couldn’t just be Tom, or Maria, or Gaganpreet or Mohamed. No, somehow individual identity was a foreign concept until you became “Woke” to the seedy underbelly that is Fascist America, the most evil and corrupt society in all of Western culture. A culture that everyone hates, yet somehow mysteriously can’t stopped migraging to for a better life, abandoning the life of plenty and freedom they once knew.
You also say “This University needs to do a better job of supporting students without socioeconomic access” and “Should the University stop supporting underprivledged students?”
Do you seriously think that everyone except white cis hetero males live in poverty? Is that actually your claim? Because according to Intersectionality white cis hetero males are the most privileged class, even though statistically women earn more money than men of equal age and education, and Asians on average make more and are favored in hiring practices. Yet according to Intersectionality these are oppressed classes.
Not every black person lives in poverty. Not every hispanic person lives in poverty. Not every woman lives in poverty. Not every asian lives in poverty. Not every trans person lives in poverty.
So if your response is something to the effect of “I know”, then why are you using race, sex, and gender as the basis for “we as a University should do more to uplift students who come from lower socioeconomic means. ”
Why not just look at income? Why not help all people who are disparaged socio-economically?
Because that isn’t what you actually want. Your entire post was a virtue signal to mainstream collectivists. You don’t care about people, you just hate White, Cis, Hetero men. You have been taught that it’s ok to be a bigot, a racist, a heterophobe, and a sexist so long as you do it against the people you hate. You will never care about actual equality or making the lives of poor people better, you just want to make the lives of white men worse.
WOW. This is GOLD.
You misspelled ‘racist af.’ Lol at “ghetto” and “black inner city culture.” Your understanding of subjects as products of their individually assessed choices rather than as a function of their relationships and structures is only something that can be maintained by deductive logic that starts from the premise that all individuals are atomized and ‘rational’ (read; coming from a tradition of mainly western enlightenment thought). Get your trickledown, pull em up by the bootstrap nonsense out of here.
You guys never cease to amaze. Someone can’t just be wrong, they’re just “racist af.”
Also, Abraham, as a fellow Jew I would suggest that you preach tolerance rather than condescension.
Just to clarify for any leftist readers: Conservatism is emphatically not about atomized individualism or enlightenment philosophy; many right-wingers explicitly reject these premises in strong terms. What you describe is akin to libertarianism and classical liberalism. Arguably, the ‘tabula rasa’ conception of human beings, from which materialist claims that we are innately bound to our social circumstances ultimately derive, seems more a conception of Enlightenment thought than anything on the true right. So too can one trace parallels between Marx and the French revolutionaries.
This said, one need not deny the importance of communities to affirm that social conditions aren’t fatalistic determinants of destiny. Many factors, including human biology, morality, and the soul, can be said to play a factor in the agentive process.
The bottom line is that social justice is divisive on its face. It MANDATES equality of outcome, whether or not that outcome benefits from equality at all. Better still, realizeing that reality means that social justice advocates have to force it on the rest of society, because the truth is actual equality of opportunity does play favorites. People can see this sprawled out, if you dont shove marxism down peoples thoats till they choke on it, then marxism never comes to fruition. Mostly because marxism is built on the precipice of a great lie that the individual is irrelevant and should be treated as such.
Advocateing for equality of outcome only serves to stifle creativity, reduce the motivation of the individual, and hurt productivity by mandadeting that the less qualified are givin a seat at the judgeing table despite their shortcomings. If your a straight white male on a college campus, assumeing you even make it there at all thanks to affermitive action; your told from day one that you need to step out of the way of everyone else becuase the color of your skin had determined that you should have less opportunity to suceeed. If you dare question why this is so, your immediately labled some terrible monicker like racsist or sexist or transphobic before ultimately being targeted for harrasment. The tottalitarian group think of cultural marxism allows no detractors or critics, and whats been unleashed upon the collegiate structure is a mortifying hivemind that cannibalizes itself.
How mortifying you ask? Well its become laughably easy to make just about any social justice quote about a privlidged class sound exactly like hitler by simply changeing a noun. Here, try it yourself.
Hi Rakin, you stated that conservatives “safe place” is society. Did you forget about the time Steve Scalise was attacked during a charity baseball game and was in critical condition? Also, here is an article proving that society is not necessarily a safe place for conservatives:
I hope you now realize that just because people are conservatives, it does not mean we are “safe”.
Some thoughts that came to mind while reading this:
1. Wake Forest “turned left”? It is immensely bizarre to me that the author and other members of the Wake Forest Review can criticize the emergence of leftist organizations on campus when they themselves openly identify as a conservative news source and defend the creation of that space. Isn’t it just as true that you all, as well as the Turning Point USA members, are doing the same thing in choosing to isolate yourselves in like-minded communities? Your “free speech” is not being violated by the creation of any of these centers — you are just as empowered to speak your mind (and get funding for it, as you are doing here) as you were before, the only difference is that now you’re now hearing the voices of people who disagree, which is apparently too much for the conservative special snowflakes to handle. You can complain as much as you want about the funding of centers for LGBTQ students and black students and women and etc., but it looks absolutely absurd when you try to claim that these centers (which are practically hidden and out of the way anyway) dominate campus culture more than, say, the business school, which promotes a distinctly right-wing ideology and receives copious amounts of funding from the university.
2. There is no neutral space. You might think that the campus space was neutral before the creation of these centers, but it is not. You might think there is no political or cultural ideology inherent in the way Wake Forest’s “normal” “campus life” operates, but there is. You may not notice it, but people who do not fit into the wealthy-white-Greek model do. This university is a gated space that is very particular about who it lets in. It is an uphill struggle to create social spaces for students who are not welcome in Wake’s Vineyard-Vines Greek culture. From my perspective, it seems perfectly reasonable to try to balance out the **university provided** frat lounges with (regulated) lounges for LGBTQ students and black students and other students of color.
3. I’m also very puzzled about this conspiracy-theory-like claim that these centers “create” student activists. Doesn’t it seem like it should be the other way around? And how does this creation work? From my understanding, students become informed on issues and then become passionate about them and advocate for them. How have you been “created” as a conservative student (activist? I hesitate to use the word, but clearly an outspoken voice). Is it because of information you have learned? In which case, what ground do you have to criticize these centers for educating on divergent views that you clearly don’t even understand yourself? (as pointed out, intersectionality =/= Marxism — it’s also weird to insinuate that the University should distribute funds based on financial need, which seems certainly more Marxist than intersectionality theory is, and then use Marxism as a vague catch-all phrase for condemning anything you deem somewhat leftist). Or is it possible that your stance comes from your own position, from defending the laws and ideas that currently benefit you economically? In which case, you should understand that those ideologies do not benefit all of us and that we have as much of a right to oppose them and demand our own equality as you do to keep defending them.
I just can’t help but think this is a radical overreaction to Wake Forest becoming slightly less insulated and slightly more open to people from diverse communities. Whenever I compare Wake to any other private or public institution, I do not think, “wow, it’s so liberal here!”. If anything, it is slowly moving towards becoming more balanced between common right-wing and left-wing ideologies (again, there is no neutral space). Why so mad about the marketplace of ideas expanding? Isn’t that what free speech is for? Oh, you think that money is corrupting the process of ideological competition by funding liberal spaces? Perhaps you should take a look in the mirror then…
I also wanted to lol at the adoption and bastardization of leftist terms in this — hard not to chuckle at the phrase “diversity industrial complex”
Also: I am completely in support of the idea of dedicating more resources to students on the basis of income disparity. If the Wake Forest Review has any proposals for how we can best do this, I am more than happy to hear them!
If you think this is true and you want equality. How about we get rid of all the lounges on this campus including greeks. Greeks get the first choice in dorms and not only that have rooms just for them. Let’s also talk about how the Greeks have events that are exclusive to them. You talk retreats? Greeks have their mountain weeks how many people of color and LGBTQ students do you see there (A couple of tokens)? Let’s remember you have to be ” invited” to go, Branches is for anyone to go. How about your beach retreats? The intercultural center does not exclude anyone. Everyone and anyone can get access. Matter of fact we always encourage you to come. The staff does not preach anything in the lounge, its literally students talking and discussing things what is going on campus, we discuss classes, parties, and so forth, it’s a lounge. The main exclusive groups on campus are the greeks. Let’s discuss conformity because there are many people in the Intercultural center who view things in different ways. You want equality we can take all the lounges away. If anyone gets the better treatment it is the greeks. Let’s discuss how my fellow classmates have complained about not being let into parties because of their skin color. Let’s remember you have to be “invited” to these events…. ” O it’s a brothers only event”. Not to mention 76% of the students on this campus come from the top 20%. I don’t think I need to elaborate on who they are, you can see it in their clothing, you can tell by the way they decorate their room, you can tell by the end of the year how spoiled some of you are by throwing away your stuff because you can get another one next year, you can see by the way yall throw away money. P.S. half the stuff yall donate can’t even be donated. Most of the people who are apart of these offices are minorities you would know if you actually step into one and engaged. Statsistcs actually show that black students are more depressed on PWI’s than on HBCU’s campus. Beverly Tatum discusses this is why these offices are needed. I’m sorry from personal experience the only time sorority or fraternity white people talk to me is when they drunk and don’t even remember they had a full conversation with you the other night and next day and day after that completely ignore you until the next time they get drunk. Ask your fellow diverse peers how they feel on this campus. They will tell you they feel left out excluded, each of them constantly says that they made a sacrifice to their social life when they came here. What events do greeks have that’s for the school? I can tell you now that Student Union and Resident Student Association have one of the biggest budgets on campus. And most of the time caters to the majority which is ( I don’t have to explain, you should know). I also thought the OPCD office, GPS office, the Academic office was for everyone. Instead of us spending our time in these offices where do you think we should go? Do Greeks not spend tie in their lounges, do they not study in their lounges? I have no personal vendetta against the greek members but I think you should sniff your butt first before you try to sniff another.
Rakin*, my sincerest apologies. Autocorrect on happened that, and I would feel it improper not to address you by your name.
My Q is how do these changes create what Ryan has isolated as “division, polarization, and strife?” I understand, or at least I think I understand, where the author is coming from — a policy of inclusion and diversity, officially sanctioned by the school, is assumed to necessitate a trade off with what the illustrious Wake Forest Review imagines as W.F. Buckley’s conservative ethos. But what exactly is being given up? Progressive reform, in any scope, will always frustrate those lagging behind in cultural/social developments (see: Gay Marriage, Roe v. Wade, 15th amendment, etc)–but if you agree that Wake Forest having a Women’s Center is good, because there are women on this campus who need it, who cares if the misogynists are upset?
In short, I think you’re getting upset about minor changes in the University that don’t really affect you, but actually provide important services to people on this campus. But I guess having that viewpoint would sort of defeat the purpose of “truth without fear,” right?
Very insightful comment Alex!
A few notes. Ryan Wolfe completely and utterly failed in accurately representing the timeline of the Centers on campus. The Intercultural Center was around way before 2015 under a different name, the Multicultural Center. The Women ‘s Center, additionally, was founded prior to the LGBTQ Center. A group of faculty and staff was founded to create an LGBTQ Center in response to Wake Forest’s national reputation as one of the top ten anti-LGBT campuses at the time. But, the group did not receive institutional support until after an LGBTQ identified student committed suicide.
Not only did Mr. Wolfe ignore the history of these spaces that would explain the reasons for their very founding, but he failed to even expose any truths based on current knowledge. Modern journalistic methods would suggest that when writing an article such as this that the journalist should try to see through the eyes of the people they write about. Ryan did not even try. He did not try to spend a few days in the centers to better understand the cultures of those spaces. He did not even interview students who frequently occupy those spaces to ask what about their views of the cultures of the centers. My point is: Ryan Wolfe has little journalistic integrity, and his methods are evident of that.
I wonder how many of the folks commenting on this article have ever stepped foot in one of the centers they seem to hate so much. If they did, then they would know that there is no idealogical dogma in those spaces. Instead, they are filled with diverse voices who have frequent, lively debates about the world, our country, and the university. Yes, many of the students in those centers lean left. But it has less to do with any sort of “indoctrination,” than it does with common sense. As a queer woman, it would make little sense for me to vote for republicans considering that they advocated for conversion therapy, fought against my right to get married, and refuse to provide me equal rights to employment and housing. I didn’t need an LGBTQ center to tell me that. I have the internet.
Overall, this article shows poor journalistic integrity and misses the point entirely. Wolfe should probably do some more investigation into the basis of these claims. To me it’s pretty clear that, as the article stands, the basis of the argument is just that Ryan personally dislikes a lot of people who hang out in these spaces. When you take out all the irresponsible “research,” that’s basically all we’re left with.
A little research would have shown that USNEWS rates WFU one of the top national Universities (number 27). The same magazine rates colleges and universities on diversity. Of the Top 27 WFU is the least diverse. (see my post below)
I skimmed the article and some of the first comments. As an alumn, I appreciate the author’s view of the garbage I witnessed at Benson, when I came to visit with my family a week ago.
But let me bottomline this for you. The name of the problem is Nathan Orr Hatch. This is what happens when you make a liberal your university president. End of story. He looked like a sane liberal on paper — after all he wrote all those religiosity books and papers. But it has a cover, he successfully infiltrated and one of the last top-of-the-line schools has fallen prey to liberalism.
As a current student I am so glad you were able to provide your analysis regarding the political climate on campus. Certainly there could be no one else more familiar with the current political discourse here than someone who visited our campus once.
Who ever said I visited once? Who ever said I was commenting on the political climate?
This pathetic response gives me the sense that you shouldn’t have been admitted to Wake and had encouraged me to get off the sidelines and fight to take back our school. Thank you.
Would you care to share with the class what you saw in Benson that troubled you so?
The women center. Retarded af — women are over 50% of the school.
The LGBTQIAXYZ center.
All the other little centers.
The silly BLM banner in the LGBTQIAXYZ center. Ffs, the election is over and you failed horribly at boosting black turnout, which was the entire point of the hysteria and race paranoia. Well, that and TV ratings.
“I’m a victim! I’m a victim! Look at me! I’m so special! Look at meeeeeeeee!”
So you felt personally victimized by some offices? Is having a doctor’s office to go to a sign of a victim mentality, also?
Also, you must be an alum of the last 3 years if you’re using such juvenile language as “retarded af.” Fix yourself.
A school that now has on it’s faculty the ex head of the far right Cato Institute (Funded by the Koch brothers) is hardly a “liberal school” run by a liberal president
Much like our horribly ignorant and incompetent president, you are fabulous at angrily writing things you know nothing about. You’ve given no evidence on how straight/white/males are being discriminated against, you’ve just spent an article whining about how there isn’t a center for straight people (by the way, straight allies are always welcome in the LGBTQ+ center), or clubs for exclusively white people. You’re pressed about programs that allow for students who feel discriminated against to feel better about themselves and receive important mentorship. You seem to be genuinely angered by the fact that people aren’t straight/white/males are getting the help they need to feel at home at Wake. I have a lot more to say, but I have more important things to do than sit here and argue with a racist, homophobic, sexist, fascist.
Ryan Wolfe, my dude, you are really failing here to create a good argument for your point. You directly relate the implementations of these programs on campus to creating a Marxist environment on campus without explaining the process. Though you have attempted to do so, you cannot make claims depicting Wake’s diversity mission as problematic without saying how this process creates any problems. The following claim: “The creation of these centers and institutes have recruited or created activist students to facilitate this transformation, provided resources to enforce ideological conformity, and has divided and polarized the Wake Forest student body” is entirely contradictory as you try to explain that these diversity programs are both forcing the student body to think unanimously while simultaneously divining the student body. I cannot understand how one can think that attempting to educate the student body that is still, even today, in 2017, predominately white, is a bad thing. I will give you the VERY least that I am not satisfied with how Wake is attempting to diversify its student body, but for reasons that differ greatly from yours. This article was written completely out of hatred and disregard for the marginalized of our society and this campus, so I find it difficult to respect anything you have said here. You claim that the left activists practice advocacy like it’s a religion, but I ask you: why does your belief system not include caring for other people? Why is their devotion to caring for others so evil to you? Why are you so intent on demonizing people who care about the marginalized?
I think you have some soul searching to do, my friend.
P.S. Marxism does not equate to intersectionality, and regardless, Marxism is not inherently bad like you make it out to be in your article.
I am here trying to form a coherent thought after reading this “argument,” but I am unable. You have done nothing but present points about what you think is wrong with this campus. But you fail to offer an alternative or even say why they are wrong. But what you’ve presented is wrong entirely. This campus’ diversity initiative is more likely an attempt to cover up the white racists and fascists it produces such as yourself, along with the support it receives from people of that tye, for example, the Koch brothers. It was not so long ago that people were pouring piss on a Muslim student’s door. Wake was rated #6 on the top anti-LGBT schools back in 2014, correct? An LGTBQ-aligned student committed suicide. Is this not the proof you need for why we call for diversity offices? But to further prove Wake’s agenda to hide its prioritization of white students, I recently attended a talk, Smashing the Stigma, where the head of the counseling center told us he was hired after presenting a thesis as an application requirement; his thesis stated something along the lines that white males involved with Greek life are most at risk for mental health issues and suicide on this campus. Needless to say, he got the job. His presentation gave the university the support it needed to further prioritize privileged white males that would be future donors to the school, something Wake cares most dearly about. So they are attempting to cover up this truth behind White Forest and present an environment more desirable and diverse to applicants. So you are wrong on both points I think you are TRYING to make. 1. These people are actually at risk and need safe spaces. 2. But the university is creating these spaces to cover up its problematic, conservative beliefs that are widely held by administrators and the many, many white students. You are a cancer to this community and if you have such a problem with it, then leave. Transfer to, say, the University of Alabama, for example where you’ll fit right in.
Ryan should sue you into oblivion for calling him a “white racist[] and fascist[].” You’re so lucky I’m not the author of this op-ed.
I’m a firm believer in fighting fire with fire.
You shouldn’t let her(?) get away with that.
You should be Ryan’s pet since you’re such a fan.
Cydney:
I am not commenting on this article because I support it or condemn it. I am commenting on this article because your comments while they could have been used to persuade people became mean and full of hatred.
To call a conservative a “cancer to this campus” and they should go to “Alabama where they will fit right in” you are being bigoted with your own comments. I hope you encourage a wide range of beliefs on this campus, as outside of the “Wake bubble” there are so many different beliefs… I mean goodness just look at Congress they can’t agree to anything. If we have civil discourse on this campus then we can have ethical communication where we can acknowledge one another’s beliefs (not necessarily agree with one another) but we can create conversation that can lead to solutions. If anything by understanding the viewpoint of another you can better understand how to communicate with them to make your points resonate. I encourage you to rethink that comment that you made as you have points in your comment that could be used to convince a conservative to agree with you… until you use ad Homs.
You also severely disappointed me in going after the fraternity Kappa Alpha Order. KA does have a racist background they can’t deny that, but the boys in that organization on campus today are not defined by their organizations history… they are defined by their own individual actions. I encourage you to not go after a large group of students and define them by their history, define them by the people they are today. Get to know those boys before you use Ad Homs to go after them.
Cydney in overall you had good points. I am so glad you commented sharing your views, I encourage you to consider what I shared and I look forward to seeing what else you have to say on campus.
I also forgot to mention the active Kappa Alpha order that is active on campus, which is historically the college branch of the KKK and racist as hell. But just saying.
One, I’m in KA and we have a black member and multiple Asians. Might want to check your facts and quit stereotyping. I’m glad we at KA don’t stereotype like you and accept people for who they are. Two, my cousin is in KA at the University of Alabama, and they also accepted a black member, but you obviously didn’t take the time to look up at the fact either because you’re too busy stereotyping others. Sad!
I’m sorry. I’m not sure what you said. There are so many grammatical errors. WOW ONE single black member. That’s astounding. Funny, you avoided commenting on the history of your fraternity.
I must admit I haven’t seen Democrats this upset since Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. Also, Robert E Lee was a democrat you should love him! Now go get rid of some statues and while you’re at it get rid of the democrat party. If you’re gonna try to get rid of everything racist you’ve got to get rid of the Democrat Party, and you have got to wipe a bunch of people out of it. You gotta get rid of J. William Fulbright. You gotta get rid of all those Southern governors. You gotta get rid of all those Southern police chiefs. You got to tear down every highway in West Virginia named after Robert Byrd (Hillary Clinton’s mentor she called him) and rename it, because he was a Grand Kleagle in the Ku Klux Klan. Honestly, I’m surprised you don’t like KA. All of the founders were DEMOCRAT! Also, Mohammed owned slaves, so get rid of the Quran, it’s racist!
It wasn’t to long ago when they dressed up like black people just to have a party and sent out death threats lets remember that also.
Congrats you guys have token Black and Asian kids. Still can’t let go of your history. It seems to me that the only history people y’all want to remember is the southerns . But 1. y’all lost 2. When we bring up slavery oo its ” We’re trying to make you feel guilty”, but yet y’all love your love throwing your southern party to remember the confederates. Yeah lets remember how our great great grandparents almost destroyed this country. That’s just great. While we at it lets throw a ” hip-hop party” AKA lets put on black face and pick on black people.
Listen. I have incredibly liberal views and was raised in a democratic household right outside of Boston. But seriously, coming at a fraternity because of historical occurrences that they have no power over? The boys in that fraternity joined it because they felt that they had strong friendships within it. There is not a “token black kid” in that fraternity, and by saying that phrase you are belittling that boy’s presence in that fraternity to his skin. The men in KA are not racist, and I’m sure you “Classy girl” and Cydney could not name one that you are friends with, so who are you to claim you know otherwise? You are being bigoted and judgmental against this group of boys that you do not know and are applying your own prejudice against greek life actives in calling them racists. The KA boys have been through a lot with mental illness within their fraternity, that is what caused them to create the THRIVE program four years ago. It is absolutely ridiculous of you to attack a group of boys you know nothing about based on history; Kappa Alpha Order is active all over the country. Are you going to hate every single member of KA in the United States simply because they joined KA? If so, you should reevaluate your understanding of prejudice.
Confederation Yes I am, Survival skills as a minority. You identify as a confederate I will not associate myself with you. How is it being prejudice knowing their history? It’s the same reason I don’t associate myself with people who still carry the stars and bars flag. Not only that but they dress like Confederate soldiers at the southern party. Mad disrespectful. You know who your founder is. You still celebrate the south, for what? What is it that you need to celebrate them for. Yes, Tokens we learn about them in sociology. Tokens don’t know they’re tokens. I don’t care for liberals either. I think some of them are sneaky they push for policy and say its for one thing but secretly for another. Bill Clinton implemented so many policies that affected me and my family poorly. So what exactly has either party done for me? Nothing, so you can take your liberal off your name. As you said you’re from the north, not the south. Live in the south and see how people treat you in the south that had grandparents who were confederates. and still, praise confederates for what they have done. Not to be insensitive but don’t they cause that on themselves by having them drink pitchers of beer, have them drive people around places, and boss them around. Let’s be honest it’s not for friendship only, but for social points. Ever heard your past can determine your future. History can give a lot of solutions today. You’re correct I will never associate myself with confederates or people who support confederates. Why should I? They say they’re not their ancestor yet yall still do this. They were the ones who threw that “Hip-Hop party” where they dressed like black people. Why would I?
Classisizing a diverse social organization because of distant ties to racism is single-minded and illogical. The same kind of logic could be applied to the overwhelmingly democratic area of Washington DC. Thomas Jefferson helped to build that city and the government sat there and he owned slaves, but it does not mean the entire populous DC is “racist as hell.” Giving into stereotypes like these does not allow for single-minded people like you to realize that people break the norms. Automatically classifying every member of that fraternity as racist is ludicrous. If you think they are racist then you must think Thrive, our campus’s well-being organization is racist because Kappa Alpha Order was Thrive’s founding organization. Flawed logic and single-minded thinking continues to build up the divide but I’m proud to see organizations like Kappa Alpha on campus who challenge stereotypes, tear down that divide, and positively influences the campus.
For those wondering what the alternatives are:
Get rid of SAT being optional
Get rid of these silly centers
Have the equivalent of term limits for the university president
Require that the ideology of the faculty reflect numerically the ideology of the general population
I laugh when I read the little comments against the author that go “you didn’t make a good argument.” You are confessing your lack of reading comprehension and closed-mindedness. That your brain has heretore never had occasion to encounter this line of argument, dearest leftie, does not make it a poor argument by mere fact of your nonrecognition. You are the final arbiter of nothing.
Also, affirmative action’s gotta go. It’s racist af in this day and age. Stop discriminating against the Chinese kid.
you can’t require anything about the faculty’s political views. that’s literally hiring discrimination you moron
Dumb child. I’m not going to explain to you.
that’s because there’s nothing to explain 😘
Also, can ya’ll tell me know how silly this sentence sounds to you?:
As a black, left-handed, right-leg amputee, asexual pansexual, blind, short, shy dog-catcher, I agree with the author’s point.
Pretty stupid, huh?
Who or what you are has no bearing on an argument. We’re not your little friends that you’re trying to impress or trying to fit in with by being “special.” There’s nothing special about you and nobody cares about you.
Who you are certainly has an impact on the validity of an opinion. Nobody asks a straight person about what it means to be a gay person. At least no one should
No, it’s an attempt to bolster a weak argument.
Nah, Cydney, we’re going to take the school back. You watch.
Just like the south will rise again? You’ll make america great again? You’ve outed yourself as an radical, racist, bigot, so responding to you is a waste of time. The Wake Forest review encourages racists, just like Trump.
What’s your SAT score?
How about, what’s your name, coward?
Did you apply for admission without initially revealing your SAT score?
Say your name, you coward.
Publius
Funny. What are five? Because you’re certainly can’t be an adult.
I think you all will destroy it before you do. Depending on how you do it, but honestly I don’t see how you can without force.
Brains, not brawn. And a lot of shifty lawyers.
1. This school is a Private Institution
2. What Amendment/clause is being violated?
3. Who exactly are you taking the school back from?
4. Your lawyers against Wake Forest, where the Trustees are rich
5. How much you have does sometimes determine which side they will side with ( I don’t think the Reynolds family will settle for That)
I’m sorry I wasn’t clear enough. I mean Hillary Clinton type of lawyers who do all sorts of things for you. The Wake Forest equivalent of wiping servers, for example, and much, much worse.
Damn you, liberals, for trying to make me think critically about privilege! What is this, a liberal arts school?! Next thing you know they’ll be trying to tell us the earth is getting warmer and poor kids deserve health care!
Reasons why you’re a liberal:
Wanted to please your teachers to get good grades to get letters of recommendation to go to college
Peer pressure
Easily persuadable
TV and movies
Being a liberal is one of the most gutless choices a person can make in their entire lifetime. It’s really to be pitied.
By the way, the Democratic Party is the party of slavery. It’s not surprising that these days they go around denying the humanity of babies — they had plenty of experience doing that to black folk.
Lol
G-U-T-L-E-S-S
Believe me.
Democrats want to tear down statutes to erase their history.
This article makes a lot of criticisms despite you saying that these centers do great things. If these centers do things that are good why are they bad for the Wake Forest Community as a whole? Additionally, as pointed out in earlier comments the Intercultural Center was formerly known as the Office of Multicultural Affairs and predated many of the other offices you have named. These offices are also not exclusive which you would know if you have ever been to them or simply talked to people who visit the offices. There are plenty of students of all backgrounds, including White, cis-gender, heterosexual males that attend and regularly visit the centers. Additionally, some of these institutes namely, PHI has hosted neutral political events and created Wake the Vote, which you should support since you benefited from the program. How can you be critical and make organizations that also benefit right-wing conservatives. Making these organizations nefarious and implying they excludes conservatives when these spaces are willing to interact with you despite the offensive things you imply about minority students is expletory of the lack of knowledge you have about the centers. The leftist programs that you criticize also relate to the centers focus. For example, the LGBTQ center brought in “LGBTQ Center hosted a speaker in 2016 that advocated for the belief that heterosexuality is ‘its own unique mode of engaging homosexual sex, a mode characterized by pretense, disidentification, and racialized heteronormative investments.'” This would be an appropriate program for a center dedicated to LGBTQ people on campus. Speakers and programs reflect the students in these spaces, just as the Review would bring in a conservative speaker. Furthermore, no one excludes you from the event nor are you forced to attend, so how exactly does it affect you personally. Is it that money is spent on the programs and that itself offends you or is it you rather only your idea exist on campus that is unclear since you love the “first amendment” right? Also you imply minority students or “they” are the only ones benefiting from these events or programs, are the only ones in these spaces, and are impressionable enough to change or be indoctrinated into Marx form these spaces. I was a Liberal before I came to Wake Forest and I certainly knew that I was Black and a Woman long before I ever stepped foot on campus. While I do not personally visit these spaces often I do understand there importance and it also know they do not have the power to make students believe anything. I wish you had made suggestions to what you want to see done because as you said in class today these institutes are complex and do many great things. Finally, Intersectionality is not equal to Marxism you can believe in Intersectionality and not be a Marxist or be a Marxists and not believe in Intersectionality. Further, it means that you have multiple identities that connect to one another and form you as a person. It does not make or equate you to only being an oppressed or oppressing individual.
You say that Wake does “not treat students equally or based on income when allocating campus life resources.” This argument ignores the numerous recourses offered to all students at Wake. The recourses offered specifically to minorities are a small fraction of the resources offered to all students. If you are complaining that cis, white, straight, males don’t get recourses for being cis, white, straight, males (and even this ignores the support that fraternities get-which are overwhelmingly represented by the above description) think about why minorities need recourses. If one pays attention, it is impossible to miss the homophobia at Wake Forest, and the LGBTQ Center exists to give queer students a place to simply hang out and be themselves away from this atmosphere. If the “leftist ideology” you mention is being supportive and respectful of each other’s identities, then what does that make conservative ideology?
I am an alum who worked at The Writing Center as both an undergraduate and graduate student at Wake Forest. One of the most surprising things I encountered during my time at Wake Forest was how sparse the resources are for international students, particularly those who are studying English as a second language. We were barely equipped to help these students although we all made do and we understood that we were one of the only lines of defense for these students to do well in school outside of ordinary academic resources. No professor took extra time with these students, which is probably something you’d agree with. But to knowingly recruit these students then not offer certain resources is very irresponsible but c’est the corporatization of the University. As a Hispanic student I was asked to recruit minority students to come to Wake Forest through programs like VISIONS and MOSAIC. I was acutely aware at times that I was recruiting students who would not fit into Wake Forest and would likely have an averse or toxic experience, regardless of their ability to perform well in school. I was routinely told by peers that I was only at Wake because I was Hispanic, and that I only got an academic scholarship for that reason. That’s racist and every single person of color, even ones who look white, experiences that at Wake and every school in the nation.
I know too many people who encountered racism and sexism day in and day out on campus – from professors to students to seeing how the staff on campus is treated to different rules for Black fraternities to host parties to people getting pepper sprayed on campus. My friend had a security guard ask for his ID while he was in the atrium because someone reported a suspicious black male.
That you do not recognize how paltry the resources and safety nets are for students who face challenges different from those you or I might is not surprising, but you should have done your due diligence in interviewing staff, administration, and faculty, students who use these centers and their resources, etc. and include/refute them in your piece. An opinion piece doesn’t mean you don’t have to do any research or talk to people. This is no more than a diatribe better fit for Facebook, particularly if you are to be so intellectually lazy, even purporting conspiracies. Y’all wild.
From a “student activist” who met mostly silence, incrementalism, and opposition from the administration but ok, Class of 2013, MA 2014
What the democratic party should fight for:
We should not have to pay for printing rights at this campus! It is an abomination!
Y’all stupid.
This article exists purely as click bate. Your backlash only gives them fuel. This is the new conservative agenda.
OMGZ he’s figured out our master plan!!!! Once you name something, you’ve defeated it. We’re dooooooooomed!
It’s “click bait.” Except it isn’t.
Dear Mr. Wolfe
I am afraid you missed the mark. Wake Forest has always been and remains a conservative institution. Any perceived move to the left is minor, and it could hardly move farther right,
USNEWS rates WFU one of the top national Universities (number 27). The same magazine rates colleges and universities on diversity. Of the Top 27 WFU is the least diverse. (1 is completely diverse, 0 is not diverse).
Princeton University 0.66
Harvard University 0.68
University of Chicago 0.63
Yale University 0.66
Columbia University 0.70
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 0.71
Stanford University 0.74
University of Pennsylvania 0.65
Duke University 0.64
California Institute of Technology 0.66
Dartmouth College 0.63
Johns Hopkins University 0.69
Northwestern University 0.63
Brown University 0.63
Cornell University 0.65
Rice University 0.69
Vanderbilt University 0.59
University of Notre Dame 0.43
Washington University in St. Louis 0.58
Georgetown University 0.58
Emory University 0.65
University of California–Berkeley 0.68
University of California–Los Angeles 0.71
University of Southern California 0.68
Carnegie Mellon University 0.68
University of Virginia 0.51
Wake Forest University 0.38
Notice that some of these universities are also in the south, and some are public universities that 60 years ago had to be sued to integrate.
You perhaps would have been more at home at Wake 100 years ago when all the students were white males, or 50 years ago when females were limited to 40% of the students and African Americans were almost always athletes. Wake has a long way to go to become diverse, as the real world or as other major universities.
I am shocked that an article claiming Wake Forest has moved drastically to the left couldn’t even bother to include the soviet of students and workers that has been meeting for the past year in Wait Chapel and the Hoxhaist bunkers that have sprung up on the quad. And you call yourself a journalist!
/s (except for the last sentence, of course)
I made a response article.
Here’s the link:
During the DACA event, there were a lot of students of color present at the rally, BUT there weren’t enough white people present. Many of them just walked passed the event and did not think to even stop to see what these students are fighting for.