‘It is discrimination to force white students to reflect on their perceived wrongs with a goal of having them reshape their views and behaviors,’ the complaint reads
Penn State Dickinson Law School on Monday was hit with a civil rights complaint over its “antiracist” strategic plan, which calls to expand “employment opportunities” for “underrepresented” groups.
The complaint, filed with three federal agencies by the conservative nonprofit Protect the Public’s Trust, alleges that the plan violates Titles IV and VII of the Civil Rights Act. It comes as Penn State’s law school is facing blowback for a host of anti-racism initiatives, including a mandatory first-year course in which students were required to “acknowledge the reality of systemic racism.”
“It is discrimination to force white students to reflect on their perceived wrongs with a goal of them having to reshape their views and behaviors,” the complaint reads. “It is discrimination to hire with a preference of having lower qualified teachers and staff of a certain race over higher qualified teachers and staff of certain other races.”
Protect the Public’s Trust filed the complaint after the Washington Free Beacon published a copy of the strategic plan, which pledges to “recruit, retain, teach and research according to antiracist principles.” Replete with references to “critical pedagogy” and “iterative historicity,” the plan reads like a relic of academic argot churned out at the height of the George Floyd era and is set to govern the law school for the next five years. It is one of several diversity initiatives spearheaded by Danielle Conway—the law school’s dean and the director of its Antiracist Development Institute—who was elected president of the American Association of Law Schools this year.
Conway also led the creation of a required first-year class, “Race and the Equal Protection of the Laws,” which the school touts as “the foundation of an antiracist legal education.” In audio of the course obtained by the Free Beacon, instructors said that they work to “dismantle systems that racialize, subordinate, and oppress.”
The complaint was filed with the civil rights divisions of the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Justice. All three agencies have targeted DEI programs at universities, accusing them of violating anti-discrimination law.
“DEI is inherently discriminatory and runs afoul of Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act,” the complaint reads. “The Strategic Plan is quietly attempting to violate civil rights laws.”
Penn State did not immediately respond to a request for comment.