Several members of the University of Nebraska Board of Regents are speaking out against the ‘Journey for Anti-Racism and Racial Equity’ unveiled by Lincoln campus Chancellor Ronnie Green.
Regents Jim Pillen, Paul Kenney and Robert Schafter held a news conference in the rotunda of the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln to discuss the issue.
In a statement issued by his gubernatorial campaign before the news conference, Pillen said there had been a lot of talk about how the journey was developed and released, and the process was completely unacceptable. “We’re talking about a misguided view of the world that reduces every problem and every person to skin color. Sometimes it’s called Diversity and Inclusion, sometimes it’s called Anti-Racism, and sometimes it’s called Critical Race Theory, but it’s all centered on the same concept: that we should approach everything through the divisive lens of race,” said Pillen.
Shortly after the diversity plan was announced by Green, Governor Pete Ricketts took the Chancellor to task, saying Green had been misleading in discussions before the announcement, and that the policies contained in it were disgusting, basically calling the University a racist institution.
In a statement from his re-election campaign, Kenney said “The Board of Regents never asked for this Journey. We never authorized it and I certainly don’t endorse it. The journey plan injects CRT into the university. Radical leftists laid the groundwork for the plan and there is nothing that can be done to fix it, other than to abandon it.
“We believe in a university that promotes sound education and prepares the future of our workforce in Nebraska. This plan runs counter to those goals by creating division. We don’t need a plan, we don’t want a plan, and in the view of this Board member this journey is over.” finished Kenney.
NU President Ted Carter had issued a statement saying he would step in and work with Green to address some of the issues of concern expressed by opponents. Green has defended the plan he says is intended to address racial equality for all, and that CRT is not mentioned in the plan, is not imposed on the campus, nor will it be. “Recruiting more diverse candidates for faculty and staff has nothing to do with quotas. It’s about getting diverse candidates for a job and then hiring the most qualified person.”
Ricketts has called the plan’s provisions unconstitutional, and the CRT and anti-racism contained in some of them are Marxist and communist in the desire for equal outcomes. He has urged University officials to come up with a better system to reach a laudable goal.
