What do Drake University students need more of? Well, according to the “remodeled” first-year “Bulldog Foundations” course — they need more diversity, equity and inclusion learning.
The course will now be called “Blueprint for Success.” And DEI learning covers five weeks of the course instead of three, according to a Dec. 4 article in the Times Delphic. Topics include allyship, Drake’s commitment to equity and inclusion as well as “Racism and Resistance in DSM and Des Moines,” according to the course syllabus.
An associate provost for academic excellence and student success called Melissa Sturm-Smith told the Times Delphic the “total overhaul” follows feedback from town hall talks earlier this year. The university had told the campus community vandalism with racist speech was found in Cowles Library and Crawford Hall.
All first-year students are required to take the indoctrination course, which takes place once per week for 50 minutes. It last 11 weeks, meaning DEI crap — or instruction, depending on how you view it — encompasses about half the course.
Sturm-Smith claims students asked the university to expand the focus of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice.
