The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh is hosting a free leadership program that explicitly excludes students who identify as both straight and white.
According to The UWO Center for Student Success and Belonging, the Catalyst Leadership Program is geared towards fostering leadership skills but restricts participation to students who self-identify as “Multicultural (Asian/South Asian/Hmong, Black/African American, Indigenous/Native American, Latino/a/x/e/Hispanic), Womxn, and/or LGBTQIA2S+.” The event is scheduled to take place on February 10.
“Catalyst™ is a one-day program focused on learning to develop your own authentic path, connect to groups and causes you care about, and commit to a plan to be a catalyst for yourself and the groups you’re part of. This program is designed to start something extraordinary,” the UWO Center for Student Success and Belonging states.
The event comes one month after the University of Wisconsin System Board agreed to scale back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in order to receive $800 million in state funding. The board voted to freeze the number of DEI positions, as well as “realign” at least 43 DEI jobs over the next two years.
“Mandatory DEI statements in admissions and hiring are also to be abolished under the deal, and efforts to fund a conservative professorship at UW-Madison must be launched,” explained The College Fix, which previously reported about the DEI cuts by the University of Wisconsin system.
The move to limit DEI programs and initiatives comes amid a broader national debate over the role of race and identity in higher education. Conservative lawmakers have long argued that DEI initiatives do not achieve equality but instead give preferential treatment to students, staff, and faculty based on external factors rather than merit. To combat this, a growing number of conservative-led states have based legislation aimed to limit or abolish completely DEI programs at college universities.
