I am ashamed of Chapman University
We're supposed to be teaching young people to lead, not kneel before a bully.
I have been an adjunct journalism professor at Chapman University for the past decade, and while I do not agree with every move the administration makes, I’ve always believed it to be a place that exists to foster and motivate the United States’ next great fleet of leaders and thinkers.
Eh, it appears I was off.
Yesterday afternoon, Chapman’s faculty, staff and students received this grim notice from Daniele Struppa, the outgoing university president and a man boasting the fortitude of a salami-coated kitten confronted by a polar bear …
In short, any efforts to foster diversity and inclusion at the Orange-based university are dead. D-E-A-D. Chapman (and Struppa, along with the school’s yellow-bellied board) gave in. They waved the white flag. They let the student body know that, when the going gets tough, Chapman folds like a mangled deck of soggy cards. If you’re Black, don’t bank on any sort of Black Student Union. If you’re LGBTQ+, maybe find a support system elsewhere. Hell, pick an ethnicity or identity, and unless it’s “I’m a white bruh, motherfuckers!” your odds of finding a support network at Chapman have just plummeted.
And what strikes me as particularly galling about the announcement is the sad and pathetic ambiguity of Struppa’s phrasing. What he meekly refers to as “organizational changes” actually amounts an all-out naked kneel-down and tug tug before the Trump White House. This isn’t a small thing, as he’d like you to believe. It’s a seismic shakeup.
Here, with some help from The Panther, Chapman’s excellent student newspaper (and writer Nicole Kavros), is what the reorganizing looks like …
Put different: Hey, students! Know all that talk about much we value diversity and inclusion? Yeah, so, um, never mind. We were just fucking with y’all. Hee hee. Ho ho. But sweatshirts are on sale for $75 in the student book store! Go buy two!
What angers me most is I actually sorta kinda kinda sorta thought Struppa might do the right thing. Yes, he’s a Republican. Yes, he’s married to Lisa Sparks, a local right-wing political grape nut who makes these people …
… seem reasoned. But, despite that, Struppa has earned the respect of many at the university with an approachable demeanor, an embracing of students, a genuine kindness and a devotion to education.
But, no.
No.
No.
No.
Terrified by reduced government funding, neutered by a mafia-styled White House, Chapman and Struppa ignored the lessons in courage delivered by Harvard and Wesleyan to, instead, play dead.
And, truth be told, this may well signify my ultimate departure from the university.
I can handle a conservative outlook.
I can handle a cautious administration.
I can even handle the musical scenes in “From Justin to Kelly.”
But I want to be able to look my students in the eyes and tell them they’re situated at a place that has their best interests at heart.
With yesterday’s announcement, I’m not sure that’s possible.
I was just there last week on a tour with my daughter and the young guide was talking about their DEI programs and remember thinking "good for them". Really sad and disappointed to hear.
We should start to think of the responses of Poland and Hungary to authoritarianism. In a Poland the people organized and pushed back, in Hungary they submitted to the fear and complied. We’re starting to look a lot like a Hungary at every level, this is a great illustration.