A Matter Of Courses: College And "Diversity" Training

                Colleges and universities ain’t what they used to be. And, in many ways, that’s a bad thing.

                They have strayed far from their former mission of expanding young people’s minds and preparing them for success in the real world. They have morphed into grievance incubators, entitlement enablers, and indoctrination centers, to the great detriment of their students…and society at large.

                The University of North Carolina-Charlotte’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, for example, offers no fewer than 345 (Three hundred and forty-five!) “Diversity Courses.” Reports indicate that department chairs and program directors compiled the list after students, during a forum, made repeated requests for more “diverse perspectives” to be made readily available. You can be sure these more diverse perspectives don’t include any traditional or conservative ones.

                The school’s Associate Dean told The College Fix: “When we consider the concept of diversity, broadly speaking, we mean that lives, perspectives and practices are enriched when we actively engage in discourse and are inclusive in our actions around complex ideas and issues.”

                Unless those complex ideas and issues are conservative in nature, in which case their actions include breaking shit and hurting people.

                To spread the love around, I just completed examining Syracuse University’s 52-page online course syllabus. (Try it yourself)! I found one course offered under the “Classics” heading. Mythology. On the other hand, there was a veritable cornucopia of class choices in Anthropology, including:

                ANT 365 – Sexual Attraction in Cross-cultural Perspective (I don’t know either)

                ANT 367 – Gender in a Globalizing World (Has the world not always been global?)

                ANT 373 – Magic and Religion (Because, apparently, religion is akin to magic and couldn’t fill up the allotted time on its own, anyway)

                ANT 376 – Folklore (Magic, religion, folklore…all the same, essentially)

                ANT 439 – Climate Change and Human Origins (Was the climate changing back then?)

                Midway through I came across the listing for Marriage and Family Therapy classes, which included:

                MFT 567 – Sexual Issues for the Helping Professional (I don’t know either; maybe a career change is in order?)

                There were 16 courses available from the Queer Sexuality Department, including:

                QSX 112 – Sexualities, Genders, Bodies (Bodies?!)

                QSX 306 – Sexuality in Spain (Why only Spain? Does this have anything to do with Catalonia?)

                QSX 348 -  Queering the Middle Ages? (What the Hell?!)

                QSX 357 – Queerly Religious (Really? Is this for gay weddings? “Queerly beloved, we are gathered here today…”)

               QSX 362 – Nazi Germany and the Holocaust (Is this just horribly out of place? If not, I don’t want to know!!)

                QSX 389 – LGBT History (What about the QIA?)

                QSX 400 – Selected Topics: Queer Sexuality (Now it’s getting redundant. What else was it going to be?)

                QSX 438 – Trans Genders and Sexualities (Transgenders and Transexualities or Trans, genders, and sexualities?)

                QSX 447 – Sexualities and Genders in World Teen Culture (How many of these can you guys make up? I’m guessing it’s an infinite number, like genders)

                QSX 453 – Feminisms, Sexualities and Human Rights in Middle Eastern Societies (There aren’t any)

                Not surprisingly, Syracuse offers a vast array of sociology courses, among them:

                SOC 435 – Sexual Politics (Is Anthony Weiner instructing?)

                SOC 309 – Race, Gender and Sexuality in the African Diaspora (I hope they have a big enough lecture hall!)

                SOC 312 – The Pale and Beyond (WTF? Is this code for after white people?)

                Syracuse offers five courses in Kiswahili. I looked it up and discovered that Kiswahili is the same as Swahili. I don’t know what the added “Ki” means. The school also offers quite a few courses on religion, including several on Islam. These two, in particular, caught my eye:

                REL 364 – Enchanting Words: Muslim Poets, Singers and Storytellers (Because there’s nothing like Islamic entertainment!)

                REL 397 – Grappling with Existence (Which is exactly what I’m doing now. I wonder if there’s still a spot open?)

                Syracuse also offers an astounding 99 courses in Women’s and Gender Studies. Apparently, none of their young scholars have any idea what either of these terms mean. My favorite was:

                WGS 473 – Women, Rap, and Hip-Hop Feminism (I guess there are infinite varieties of feminism, as well. Still, hard to see “rap” and “feminism” in the same description)

                Clearly, colleges have de-emphasized English, the classics, rhetoric, debate, Western thought, etc., etc., but Syracuse does offer eight different English-as-a-Second-Language courses!.

                The kids might not be exposed to Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Montesquieu, the Magna-Carta, the Declaration of Independence, Adam Smith, Friedrich Hayek or Ayn Rand, but by God they’ll know the “lyrics” to every Snoop Dogg “song.” And where to find an “all-gender” bathroom.

                Please excuse me now. I’m off to grapple with existence.