Wheaton College is Becoming a New Focal Point of the Academic Diversity Debate
As members of CUNY we know that one of the nice benefits of attending colleges are in fact the interactions that we make with the other students that are attending the school. The melting pot of information, discussion and an overall pursuit of knowledge helps individual students grow themselves but also integrate new ideas that arise into their own thoughts to develop more cohesive ideas. This feature of college isn’t indigenous to CUNY although it is a part of it’s identity as seen in the early years of CITY College[1]. The issue arises when numerous people are against the concepts of affirmative action[2], which serves to not only let the underprivileged of poor socioeconomic students achieve a higher education but to also allow the schools to achieve diversity among their students, and for the most part the public is backing the idea of making colleges more diverse[3]. The importance of diversity in colleges also allows students to begin to interact with people of different backgrounds as it is highly unlikely that in their life they will never interact with other people.
As prevalent as the benefits of making schools more diverse are there are some schools who are still not in favor of it and it is putting them behind both economically and socially. Wheaton College has recently sparked controversy when they have taken steps to fire Professor Larycia Hawkins. The issue with her firing is that is is not merit based but more so social based. Professor Hawkins in the midst of the rampant racism, decided to show her support for Muslims when she decided to wear a hijab by proclaiming that both Christianity and Islam are religions of the same G-d and the Book “Larycia Hawkins donned a hijab last December to show solidarity with Muslims during a rising tide of anti-Islamic sentiment following the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. She posted on Facebook a photograph of herself in a hijab with the message, “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims because they, like me, a Christian, are people of the book.”[4]. Wheaton College is a Christian flagship school who took offense to this statement and subsequently took steps to fire Professor Hawkins. While I respect the school’s vigor and objectivism to stick with their mission statement, I am completely appalled that the school would fire a professor due to her personal opinion that really doesn’t hurt anyone.
This controversy is only negative for Wheaton College, the resistance of seeing other views isn’t only seen in this regard but also in their sciences where the “cutting edge” sciences in the school should still expect students to understand that humans descended from Adam and Eve. This alone prevented the school from receiving money from a man who was at first willing to invest. “As the college president, the Rev. Philip Ryken, showed off the west suburban Chicago school’s cutting-edge science labs to Vanderveen, the former Wheaton student recalled Ryken saying that students were expected to accept the belief that mankind descended from Adam and Eve — one of the college’s core tenets found in its statement of faith. As a result of what he perceived to be the school’s conservative bent, Vanderveen never gave the college another dime.”[5]
Personally, I think this school which is feeling the wrath of remaining in the past and unaccepting of other groups of people within their institution is becoming a great point in why schools should begin to recreating themselves to the changing world and become more accepting of others.
[1] Dorman, Joseph. Arguing the World: The New York Intellectuals in Their Own Words. New York: Free, 2000. Print.
[2] Schmidt, Peter. “What the Supreme Court Will Be Asking as It Revisits Affirmative Action.” Chronicle of Higher Education (n.d.): n. pag. Web.
[3] Drake, Bruce. “Public Strongly Backs Affirmative Action Programs on Campus.” Pew Research Center RSS. N.p., 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 04 May 2016.
[4] Pashman, Manya. “Wheaton College Could Face Long-term Fallout over Professor Controversy.” Http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-wheaton-college-professor-fallout-met-20160222-story.html. N.p., n.d. Web.
[5] ibid
