A new legislation now being rolled out by California State University system officials aims to break down on bias, microaggressions, intimidating behaviour, and bullying — but has raised free talk alarm bells.
Discrimination and harassment complaints that do not contravene regional, state, or federal regulations would be overseen by the” Another Do of Concern” plan. It is now in document form, and it will be finalized this quarter and submitted to the California Auditor in first January.
It requires staff at all 23 schools to tackle any and all reviews of “verbal abuse”, “intimidating habits”, “microaggressions that are not pervasive”, “bullying”, “hostile vocabulary”, and “acts of partiality”.
Following a incident that occurred several years ago because of the failure to handle Title IX complaints, the policy aims to correct the course.
Some critics claim that the end result appears to be a monitoring system in which any expression or action one finds rude can be reported and investigated instead of creating a system that is hyper-focused on Title IX-based bias and harassment.
According to the policy, these reports create permanent paper trails that call for” corrective action,” such as restorative justice and re-education trainings.
In a recent Times of San Diego op-ed, San Diego State University English Professor Peter C. Herman wrote,” The problem is that calling something a “microaggression” is entirely subjective.
“…Nonetheless, the CSU Administration wants to set up a complicated system to police]Other Conduct of Concern, or OCC] and everyone is under surveillance”.
Complaints will be tackled through a seven-step process: acknowledgment, initial review, support for the “reporting party”, factfinding, communication, action, and follow-up.
” …The nature of the behavior ( s ) will determine how OCC is addressed.” Potential outcomes could include education, counseling, coaching, mentoring, training and restorative processes”, the policy states.
” A supervisor, student affairs professional or administrator will recommend appropriate
corrective action. Supervisors will continue to monitor the environment to stop the behavior from repeating itself.
All complaints will be documented and “preserved” under the policy.
San Diego State University physics professor Arlette Baljon told The College Fix via email on Tuesday,” I am very concerned about the super-broad net this policy casts.”
For example, she pointed out the policy states intimidating behavior is not allowed.
Everyone has their own cultural and family history, but it’s impossible to predict how your words will affect someone else or how they will intimidate them, she said. ” A few months ago, someone stood up while speaking at a Senate meeting. For some that was intimidating, I myself never perceived it like that”.
In other words, it’s difficult to predict how your words and actions will affect others, and they’re more likely to have an impact on one person than on another.
” I think this policy will silence students, faculty, and staff”, she said.
Herman agrees.
He told The College Fix via email on Tuesday,” I am shocked and appalled that a policy meant to fix issues with Title IX has turned into a baggy monster making anything anyone finds offensive, no matter how small or occasionally, subject to discipline.” The trustees should immediately reject this recommendation as a violation of free speech and common sense.
However, CSU trustees who spoke at a board meeting on November 21 were all but praised for the draft policy, claiming that it was necessary to fix the” culture” at CSU.
The only queries that a few trustees raised were whether a larger number of employees would be required to deal with the volume of complaints.
” My concern is that we are setting up a Title IX bureaucracy to handle all these complaints,” said Trustee Jack McGrory.” But ] there’s also an issue about setting a culture change that says we are not going to put up with this crap, zero tolerance, and we have to do it,” he said.
MORE: Alumni organizations request that the Supreme Court hear cases challenging bias response teams.
IMAGE: California State University system
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