The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) has awarded Andrews University $38,800 as a “Reframing the Institutional Saga” grant for through CIC’s Network for Vocation in Undergraduate Education (NetVUE).
According to the CIC website, the purpose of this grant program is to enable liberal arts institutions to produce an updated account of their history and mission in light of their current context.
This initiative is being administered by CIC with generous support from Lilly Endowment Inc. The Lily Endowment was started by Josiah K. Lilly Sr. and his two sons, Josiah Jr. and Eli (famous for being the founders of the Lilly pharmaceutical company in Indianapolis).
According to ANN,
Michael Nixon, vice president for University Culture & Inclusion, and Meredith Jones Gray, professor of English, will lead a team of researchers and writers who will work to shed light on some of the neglected stories that have shaped our institutional journey.
The project will incorporate a wide range of voices to inform university identity and create a more welcoming campus culture for diverse ethnicities, cultures, and religious perspectives. The truth-telling process will include participants from dominant and non-dominant voices that will be blended to reflect the history of Andrews University.
“I am excited that we have gotten this vital grant that will help us continue on our institutional journey of reckoning with our past in authentic ways while we work together to chart the path ahead,” shares Nixon. “This work began in fall 2020 with the official launch of our Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, and this CIC/NetVUE grant will help us continue this important work.
Observations
Whitworth University, a recipient of the grant last year, used the funds to study issues related to race, ethnic diversity, and sexual orientation. We believe that Andrews will pursue a similar course.
These Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Departments (or D.I.E.D. for short) are killing off genuine Christian charity in the name of militant wokeness on aspiring campuses. This is popular in our culture, and colleges (even Adventist ones) who buy into culture way more than they should are being swept along in the anti-racist racist current.
Psychologist and author Jordan Peterson resigned from his full-time tenured position at the University of Toronto this week in protest of the academic institution’s rapid embrace of faulty leftist ideologies. In a letter published in the National Post, Peterson recounted how modern university’s “Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity mandates” are ruining the school’s commitment to promoting an environment that prioritizes learning, discussion, and true ideological diversity.
“We are now at the point where race, ethnicity, ‘gender,’ or sexual preference is first, accepted as the fundamental characteristic defining each person (just as the radical leftists were hoping) and second, is now treated as the most important qualification for study, research and employment,” Peterson said.
“Need I point out that this is insane?” “Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity — that radical leftist Trinity — is destroying us,” he continued.
The Fall 2021 CIC Newsletter is available online. A cursory review of the newsletter reveals these interesting statistics:
God is mentioned twice in the newsletter, both times refer to a philosophical course taught at the Notre Dame University.
Diverse/diversity (the first member of the leftist holy trinity) is mentioned 38 times
Inclusion — 15 times
Interfaith — 16 times
Liberal — 17 times
Equality — 6 times
The Bible is mentioned 0 times
Equity — 22 times
Diverse/diversity — 38 times
Social justice — 3 times
Justice — 12 times
Andrews President Andrea Luxton states,
“Andrews University is delighted to receive this grant, which will enable us to explore our unique institutional narrative with authenticity and transparency. As we understand our own history better, our own future will be stronger.”
The above quote is a textbook case of saying nothing (pun intended).
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“Let the redeemed of the Lord say so” (Psalm 107:2).