Social Work Professors Start Firestorm by Speaking Truthfully

Proof that our colleges and universities have sunk far into the swamp of political correctness is abundant, but a recent furor at Smith College is impossible to top.

Faculty members in the college’s School of Social Work wrote two letters to the administration. The first, written by Professor Dennis Miehls, told them that he thought they were failing in their “gatekeeper” function because they admitted students who were not prepared for college-level work. That did them no favor, but instead set them up for failure.

Professor Miehls called the admissions process “tainted” because the college’s racial preferences led to the enrollment of unprepared students.

The other letter, signed “Concerned Adjuncts” voiced similar concerns but did not specifically mention race. It stated, “What many people are thinking but are afraid to say is that when students are admitted who do not have the academic qualifications to do well enough in a rigorous, demanding, stressful program, these students are being set up for failure.”

These letters were sent in confidence to the administration by faculty members who wanted to call attention to an academic problem they had perceived.

Unfortunately, their assumption that the letters would remain confidential proved to be mistaken. Someone in Smith’s administration leaked them to campus activists, declaring that they demonstrated the existence of “white supremacist systems” at Smith.

The release of the letters sparked a campus protest. One student was quoted as saying, “We bear witness to the violence of racialized, differential treatment of students of color.” Violence?

Regarding the protest, The Daily Caller’s Blake Neff writes, “Ironically, the protesters seem to share many facts with the complaining letters. Christopher Watkins, a protest leader, complained that a ‘disproportionate amount’ of black and Hispanic students at the school have been placed under academic review, which seems to reflect the situation the letters complained about. The protesting students, though, believe their poorer performance reflects systemic racism in the school rather than lower overall readiness.”

And how did the Smith administration respond to all this? As you’d probably expect, rather than defending the professors and decrying the absurd claims about racism, it bowed down to the protesters.

As quoted in this Inside Higher Ed story, Marianne Yoshioka, dean of the School of Social Work released a statement declaring:

“The Smith College School for Social Work is one of the most selective social work programs in the country. Our standards are exceptionally high for those we admit, and we take pride in each of our highly intelligent, capable and compassionate students, particularly throughout the recent campus involvement they have encouraged. For the past year, prompted by these students, we as a community have been engaged in important, productive and collaborative work to continually evolve as an antiracism organization. Social work is not a profession that effectively operates within the status quo. We are clinical professionals specifically committed to social justice and systemic change. The determination brought by our students, the courage they have shown and the accountability they have demanded will challenge us to fulfill our commitment alongside the next generation of social workers.”

So we are to believe that social work requires a commitment to social justice. It has probably never crossed Dean Yoshioka’s mind that a lot of the problems social workers confront are rooted in governmental policies meant to advance social justice.

Notice also that the statement never mentions the possibility that the faculty members might be right – that some of the students are academically unprepared for the work. Apparently, conceding that the affirmative action policies Smith follows might have some bad results is unthinkable – or maybe the dean just wants to avoid being called racist herself.

We have reached a very low point indeed when professors cannot freely express their reservations about admissions policies without fear of being denounced as racist.

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