Texas State University pauses diversity training after Trump executive order threatens federal funding


Trump’s executive order, signed on Sept. 22, requires federal contractors and agencies that receive federal grants to discontinue training that contains “any form of race or sex stereotyping” and other “divisive concepts,” which could include discussions of the existence of white supremacy.
Corey F. Benbow, a graduate student at Texas State and president of the Underrepresented Student Advisory Council, said students weren’t told about the decision to stop the training, an oversight he called disheartening.

Benbow said Texas State still needs to reconcile its recent history that includes not denouncing white supremacist propaganda on campus and arresting students of color after protests.

“This is why diversity programs and this type of training is so important, because it provokes thought and it allows the administration to really embed in their faculty and staff that this is something that is important to Texas State,” Benbow said.

But for Benbow, at Texas State, the damage by the university has been done.

“This is a predominantly white university that was never built for myself to get an education or for students of color to get an education,” Benbow said. “When we have these systems in place that have been oppressive, depressive and suppressive, it is incumbent upon us to do something about it. And that’s what these trainings do, they do something about it.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/10...versity-trump/