According to a report in The Minnesota Republic, Community Adviser Justine Schwartz will not be returning to her position in Frontier Residence Hall, despite an overall positive performance review. The reason? She dared to challenge conventional 'social justice' wisdom.
As a Community Adviser, Schwatz "is in charge of fostering a community of students in their transition into college life." Schwartz is also an honors student, works with several volunteer organizations, and with the Cub Scouts in the summertime. However, those credentials don't seem to be relevant if you don't subscribe to accepted social justice standards.
Some excerpts from the report, which you can read in full here:
In the Positive Contributions category in the Attitude and Growth Mindset section, the review states, “When challenges arise in meetings, staff member uses language/behavior that contributes to dysfunction.” In Schwarz´s comment section, Smallwood found Schwarz´s individual learning process lacking.
“Justine has not demonstrated a commitment to social justice growth and promotion to residents. When she engaged in discussions about [Diversity and Social Justice], she often plays devil’s advocate. It often feels as though she is doing this for the fun of it, out of enjoying the process of debate. Sean and Noelle often wonder to what extent she is truly processing the information and grappling with differing perspectives- leading to curiosity around how she is engaging her residents with these topics (if at all). Upon further inquiry, we’ve come to understand that this is how she thought it was best to engage, but now realizes how it could impact others and their learning. She is learning in this area and is constantly improving”
This clearly states that Schwarz should not be playing devil’s advocate. Exploring both sides of any issue is key to any real progress in finding diversity and truth. The language also suggests that because Schwarz plays devil’s advocate, she is not truly processing information from differing perspectives.
An entire staff meeting was dedicated to the Black Lives Matter movement. The educational links provided included information from the Black Lives Matter official website and an article titled “How to Explain Black Lives Matter to White People.” This article dismisses any sentiments that disagree with the phrase “Black Lives Matter” and is vehemently opposed to the “All Lives Matter” rhetoric, dismissing it as racist for not following the status quo. The article later goes on to call Fox news host Sean Hannity a “racist f***tard” and having the black protagonist threaten to “F**k up” a white commentator. There was no literature that dealt with a differing opinion on the issue in the agenda.
Clearly, diversity at the University of Minnesota is only valued in relation to appearances, certainly not diversity of thought.