My communications professor at Texas State University taught his students a very valuable lesson this semester: “It costs nothing to shut the hell up and listen.”
A class discussion about the word “woke” turned into an uncomfortable portrayal of how easily classroom dialogue can turn into an echo chamber of mob mentality.
I was in the lecture hall when a fellow student, Emilio Sandoval, confronted our professor, Dr. Alan Grant, during a class on perception and identity.
Dr. Grant claimed that whenever he used the term “woke,” it was always white men who took offense. Sandoval raised his hand, calling Dr. Grant’s assertion an anecdote and “not a fact for everybody.”
“Every single man and woman can speak for themselves, but you can’t speak for me,” Sandoval said, using a fake name for fear of reprisal from his classmates.
Those fears, unsurprisingly, proved well-founded.
“Who else feels this way like Sam,” Dr. Grant asked the classroom. A choir of students responded: “nobody!”
As Savadoval tried to explain his position, classmates shouted insults and goaded him to “drop the class,” and “admit you hate black people.” Other students called him a “racist” and said that he only held his position “because he’s a man.”
The professor did say that it was “not my intent to upset you,” but as Savadoval attempted to continue the discussion, Dr. Grant turned to his teaching assistant, effectively asking them to confirm that Savadoval’s position was invalid.
“What he looks like has nothing to do with it. All white people don’t think the same,” Savadoval replied.
Dr. Grant then began to further single out Savadoval by highlighting a prior incident, when Savadoval, during the first week of class, pushed back against the professor’s assertion that “people who use ‘woke’ in a disparaging way sound stupid.”
During the most recent exchange with Savadoval, Dr. Grant doubled down on the argument from earlier in the semester, saying, “If you say you’re anti-woke, you’re saying you want to be ignorant.”
Savadoval told Minding the Campus after the ordeal that the incident “was clearly not an intelligent or mindful exchange” and “felt personal to the teacher.”
Indeed, Dr. Grant’s profile page on the Texas State website reveals just how personal being “woke” is to him.
In describing his teaching, Dr Grant writes, “I prefer to weave my social justice initiatives into the course as opposed to making them ‘stand alone’ concepts.” He explains that he personally assembled a team of teaching aides “comprised of students from various nationalities, ethnicities, and sexual persuasions” to lead group discussions and deliver “mini-lectures” on identity topics.
Some of those mini-lectures have included “Understanding Latin X,” “The Korean Exchange,” and “Challenging Binaries.”
Dr. Grant was recently the subject of an essay by Managing Editor Jared Gould, which detailed two assignments heavily focused on “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) indoctrination.
The first assignment, called a “Self-Disclosure Exercise,” required pairs of students to interview each other for 15 minutes about their sexual attractions, religion, income, political beliefs, and criminal history, among other personal matters.
The second assignment, a small group activity called “#TheCompanySlipUp,” required students to play the role of crisis managers for a fictional company accused of “unethical practices in the workplace, with a DEI expansion being a chief way to rebuild trust in the brand.
Dr. Grant’s emphasis on DEI–whether in assignments or in shaming students for their opinions–runs afoul of Texas’s attempt to eliminate woke ideology from its public institutions.
The state legislature passed Senate Bill 17 in 2023, banning DEI offices and initiatives in public universities. Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order directing all state agencies to dismantle DEI policies, and President Donald Trump has done similarly at the federal level.
Even by implementing these policies, “woke” indoctrination on campuses is still rife.
“Texas State needs to course-correct and prioritize producing logically reasoning experts in fields of objective sciences,” said Savadoval.
Image: “Undergraduate Academic Center at Texas State University San Marcos” by JRWG on Wikimedia Commons
