Tulane University To Host Event On ‘Decolonizing Study Abroad’

Tulane University will host an event entitled “Decolonizing Study Abroad” on Thursday as part of the school’s “equity speaker series.”  

The event is hosted by the university’s Center of Academic Equity, which promotes programming on equity and social issues. The department has emphasized other Leftist-preferred topics such as immigration and women’s issues specifically in its past programming. It previously hosted events on how students at Dartmouth College confronted “anti-immigrant sentiment in their library catalog” and a separate event combating then-candidate Donald Trump’s narrative about America’s southern border. 

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, programming has been limited to small on-campus gatherings or grab-and-go literature. Tulane’s “Decolonizing Study Abroad” program is a grab-and-go program, which will provide resources that emphasize “equity in study abroad” and literature about decolonization and support for minority and LGBTQ students.

Tulane University senior Rachel Altman told The Daily Wire she thinks that these seminars are created to persuade students to embrace “woke orthodoxy.”

“Education should be about giving students information,” Altman said. “These programs, which present a very specific point of view on social justice, as if it’s settled fact, are the antithesis of the ideal.”

Following the police-involved death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, Tulane’s campus has been infiltrated by critical race theory, which claims that America is irredeemably racist. The school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion office has frequently promoted materials designed by critical race theory pedagogy. 

In a powerpoint presentation obtained by The Daily Wire, the diversity, equity, and inclusion office said that having a “sense of urgency,” “objectivity,” and the “right to comfort” were tenets of white supremacy in the workplace. The presentation claimed that it was a white supremacist value to believe “that there is such thing as being objective.” 

Tulane administrators also sympathize with the campus’s most radical students, who demand that the school institute a $15 minimum wage and divest from fossil fuels before returning to on-campus learning. 

The university and the Office of Study Abroad did not return requests for comment. 

Decolonizing Study Abroad presentations are not new to academia, nor are they specific to Tulane University. Arizona State University’s study abroad office partnered with its Diversity and Inclusion team to present on study abroad programs and the history of “perpetuating systemic inequities and neo-colonialism.” The programming description encourages students to engage in left-wing activism while abroad. 

“Many people are engaged in activism, from the Black Lives Matter movement to Pride,” the description for the Arizona program reads. “This workshop will detail some considerations to engage in these important movements in another cultural context, having brave conversations with individuals from another culture, and how to continue to support your local community while away.”

The University of Minnesota hosted a similar seminar, as did Kent State University, which claimed that more white students participating in study abroad was an example of inequality.

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