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GREENCASTLE, Ind. – Officials at DePauw University canceled classes Thursday for the first time in over 100 years to hold a campus-wide discussion on white privilege and social justice.

The day, dubbed “DePauw Dialogue,” was organized by students and faculty to discuss “microaggressions” against minorities at the university, as well as DePauw’s history of inclusiveness, from its first black graduate, Tucker Wilson, in 1888 to recognition as a diverse liberal arts school in the 1980s, according to The DePauw student newspaper.

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Freshman Diamond McDonald said she helped to organize the day-long discussion because as a black woman she always feels like “the odd one out.”

“At first I didn’t want to do (anything) because I felt like it was going to be really intense,” McDonald told The DePauw. “But then I thought ‘How selfish of me not to do this for future generations.’”

The program was mandatory for students, who were penalized if they did not attend, according to the student newspaper.

University president Brian Casey kicked off the dialogue day with remarks on DePauw’s history, and pointed to other schools like his Alma mater Notre Dame that are also promoting the concepts of white privilege. Notre Dame offers a six-week class on the subject, he said.

“We have to understand that we are in the midst of a national movement,” Casey told students, according to the newspaper.

Other speakers included Columbia University professor Derald Wing Sue, who spoke about the microaggressions he’s faced as an Asian American, including a cab driver in D.C. who marveled at his excellent English.

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Another woman once asked him where he was from, and he explained that he was born in Portland.

Those experiences perpetuated stereotypes about Asian Americans, but Sue acknowledged that those who unwittingly employed miroaggressions didn’t mean anything by it.

“Oppression of another is oppression that is painful to ourselves,” he told students. “We should not see one another as enemies.”

After the opening remarks, students gathered in randomly assigned small groups to talk about what they heard, and to share their own microaggression experiences.

Afterward, about a quarter of the 2,000 students in attendance ditched the program, while two-thirds headed to the Neil Fieldhouse to listen to Tom DeWolf and Sharon Morgan, authors of the book “Gather at the Table.”

Morgan and DeWolf study epigenetics – how the environment and experiences impact genetics – and suggested that epigenetics explains why hatred and aggression is passed from one generation to the next, The DePauw reports.

DeWolf is the descendant of slave traders and Morgan is the descendant of slaves, according to the newspaper.

While McDonald and other students believed the day went well overall, some were disappointed that most of the discussions centered on race, as opposed to other microaggressions against gays, women or others.

“I was a little skeptical that it seemed a little race heavy,” junior Iesha Brooks told The DePauw. “It wasn’t as well-rounded as I’d hoped.”

UPDATE:

DePauw University’s Executive Director of Media Relations Ken Owen emailed EAGnews a story from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education explaining the school dropped the mandatory participation requirement after significant push back from students and faculty.

From FIRE’s article, which Owen says “has a better grip on reality:”

In response to the pushback, the DePauw administration decided that DePauw Dialogue would no longer be mandatory. On Monday, January 26, Wells and Madison sent the following email to the DePauw student body:

Members of the DePauw Campus Community,

The upcoming day-long event on Wednesday represents an important opportunity for our entire campus to come together to expand our understanding of each other and to improve upon the ways in which we live and work together.

Unfortunately, our email message the other day has sparked a number of conversations that have felt like distractions from the purpose of the day itself. Faculty members have questioned whether the requirement to attend has become a new graduation requirement, a step that the faculty have not approved. This academic policy question has been raised even by members of our community who have been outspoken in their support for the day itself.  Students have also raised issues of academic freedom, and have suggested that the attendance requirement has made them less likely to join in the events of the day in a constructive frame of mind.

The academic policy concerns in particular have required that we re-think our position in regard to the student requirement to attend. Therefore attendance will not have an impact on registration or commencement activities.

The day’s program has required heroic labor from a large number of faculty, staff, and students who have worked hard to come together to produce a day that will be meaningful valuable for everyone in attendance. Wednesday promises to be a rare opportunity for our community, and also the individuals in attendance. We hope that, with these distractions out of the way, our campus community will choose to take advantage of the rare educational and experiential opportunity that the University will provide on the 28th.

Christopher Wells
Vice President for Student Life

Renee Madison
Senior Advisor to the President for Diversity and Compliance

This email leaves little doubt that, but for the outspoken criticism by students and faculty, attendance at DePauw Dialogue would still be compulsory. (All great dialogues start with making every single person participate whether they want to or not, right?) What has transpired since the university lifted the attendance requirement demonstrates precisely the folly of the “this is mandatory” attitude.

“Making class registration and graduation contingent upon attending an ideologically oriented event would have had troublesome implications for freedom of conscience at DePauw,” FIRE concludes.