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Hoist Them On Their Own Petard, Betsy!
I’m a bit giddy with schadenfreude. It’s probably because I’m a nerd of a lawyer.
Betsy DeVos has been a terrific Secretary of Education. Yesterday, her department sent a letter to the President of Princeton about Princeton’s admission of racism. Here are some excerpts (citations omitted)
Since you became President in 2013, and in exchange for well over $75 million in federal Title IV taxpayer funds alone, Princeton University (“Princeton”) has repeatedly represented and warranted to the U.S. Department of Education (“Department”) Princeton’s compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . . .. Title VI provides no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal assistance. Also, Princeton has made many material nondiscrimination and equal opportunity representations to students, parents, and consumers in the market for education certificates during this time.
On September 2, 2020, you admitted Princeton’s educational program is and for decades has been racist. Among other things, you said “[r]acism and the damage it does to people of color persist at Princeton . . .” and “[r]acist assumptions . . . remain embedded in structures of the University itself.” . . . Because of racism, you announced race-based “diversity” measures for hiring, procurement, teaching, fellowship, and research funding.
Based on its admitted racism, the U.S. Department of Education (“Department”) is concerned Princeton’s nondiscrimination and equal opportunity assurances in its Program Participation Agreements from at least 2013 to the present may have been false. The Department is further concerned Princeton perhaps knew, or should have known, these assurances were false at the time they were made. Finally, the Department is further concerned Princeton’s many nondiscrimination and equal opportunity claims to students, parents, and consumers in the market for education certificates may have been false, misleading, and actionable substantial misrepresentations in violation of [federal statute and regulation]. Therefore, the Department’s Office of Postsecondary Education, in consultation with the Department’s Office of the General Counsel, is opening this investigation.
. . .
Based on the facts, the Secretary of Education may consider measures against Princeton for false Program Participation Agreement nondiscrimination assurances, including an action to recover funds. Also, she may consider measures against Princeton for making substantial misrepresentations about the nature of its educational programs, including a fine proceeding. . . .
Wow.
So, your university is racist. Is it, Mr. Princeton President? Then your university lied to the federal government, lied to students, lied to parents, and lied to others, over and over again. Your university repeatedly violated the anti-discrimination law. Give us back all of that federal money, at least $75 million.
An article by the Washington Examiner, which includes the full letter, is here.
The letter demands voluminous records within 21 days, plus answers to written questions, plus the production of the President of Princeton and a corporate representative within 28 days for an interview under oath. A couple of the documents requests are just priceless (if you’re a nerd of a lawyer):
All records concerning, relating to, or referencing Princeton’s “systemic” and/or “embedded” racism, as those terms are used in the President’s Letter. The time frame for this request is January 1, 2013 to the present.
A spreadsheet identifying each person who has, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, been excluded from participation in, been denied the benefits of, or been subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance as a result of Princeton’s racism or “damage” referenced in the President’s Letter.
Then there’s this written question, which must be answered within 21 days:
The President’s Letter admits “Racism and the damage it does to people of color . . . persist(s) at Princeton” and racist assumptions “remain embedded in structures of the University itself.” Do these admissions mean Princeton’s nondiscrimination and equal opportunity assurances and representations to the Department and/or its students, parents, and consumers in the market for education certificates have been false and misleading? If not, why not?
Go Betsy! Strike first, strike hard, no mercy sir!
I hope that this is just the first of many such letters and investigations. I hope that the Department of Education is relentless in demanding refund of money and imposing fines for false statements.
BLM delenda est.
Published in Education
Right on.
Right on.
Just when you think everything is going to Hell, perfect happens.
I’m not sure the president’s letter by itself is sufficient to prove that the prior official university statements were wrong. It seems to me the letter suggests the possibility, and thereby justifies further investigation into the possibility that the prior official statements were wrong. Hence the demand for records.
I’m sure the university lawyers will be able to justify the earlier official statements, but in doing so they will have to admit to the BLM and related potential rioters that the president’s statement is meaningless bloviating, which will incur their wrath and thereby threaten the peace and tranquility and physical wellbeing of the university campus.
Could there be prison sentences for knowingly misrepresenting Title VI compliance? Gee, that would be just terrible.
It seems that any college that teachers, administrators, or staff, have recently claimed the mantle of racism need Federal investigations and anybody not following the laws should be inconvenienced. I am tired of only one side having to live up to the law and honesty.
Powerline has a good short write- up about this.
The university has probably also received grants and contracts from the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, NASA, and other federal departments, collectively for much more than the $75 million that came via the Department of Education, and the university would have made similar certifications in connection with those grants and contracts. So there are several other departments of the federal government that could probably launch similar investigations.
I love this line of attack against these Leftist universities. It’s hard to find a University President or Dean who doesn’t want to virtue-signal on this issue. It’s all BS and everybody knows it but pretends otherwise. It’s time to put up or shut up.
Actually, no. White is ALL colors of light, together, and a prism can separate them. If white was the absence of color, a prism wouldn’t do anything. And space isn’t black because it has ALL colors.
The interrogation:
Princeton University President (PUP): I wasn’t really saying we discriminated, I was just supporting the black lives matter movement.
Department of Education Lawyer (DEL): So, you were saying something like, “We know that black lives matter, we’ve damaged so many of those lives ourselves”?
PUP: Yes, er… no. No! Not at all! I was expressing empathy with the protestors.
DEL: Empathy? You mean like, “I’m sorry your Grandfather died. We kill old people all the time”?
PUP: No! I was trying to show our solidarity!
DEL: By confessing to a crime? Do you believe the protestors are criminals?
Universities and corporations well know the viciousness embedded in critical race theory. They have been trying to purchase a “get out of jail” card with their words or tribute. This episode alerts their leaders that there is more than one jail.
There is also the toxic environment that they create for themselves and their people. Hell has many facets.
Just remember, “in compliance” means as bad as the (systemically racist in this case) law will allow.
Princeton is making a religious claim.
All white people are theologically tainted by systemic racism, a transmissible form of sin and inevitable accompaniment of their white privilege. Princeton was founded by white people, and for much of its history most of its students and faculty were white men, the primary repository of systemic racism. It is inevitable that this should leave a lasting pollution.
Persons of color and non-patriarchally gendered individuals are intrinsically incapable of being racist due to their inherited powerlessness.
Despite this history, Princeton insists that however racist its white people unquestionably are, the University’s current policies and community standards are carefully crafted to minimize the pernicious influence of its white history. Indeed, the University relies on the sacred feelings of oppression which the valued POCs and NPGI including LGBTQIA and other members of the non-racist elect bring to the table; they are the subject matter experts and the University must protect them from systemic racism.
The University is confident that its this most recent move by the Department of Education will soon be recognized for the white supremacist attack on racial justice that it is.
Please don’t give them ideas…
Well, Firstly, I was nearly gleeful when I first read that DeVos called them on their posturing. After all saying you’re not discriminating to the Feds when applying for money, and saying you are discriminating when talking to your clients is two-faced and lying to someone.
But then again, it can be argued that the certifications that Princeton made yesterday, can be reinterpreted today using new found information. In this case, Princeton found out today, that discrimination is deeper and more pervasive than it ever thought, and deeper than even the US government suspected and inquired about. This knowledge is new and still needs to be vetted, but it apparently is there. And Princeton needs to address it aggressively from today onward.
This is the easy out. Will they take it? I think so.
I prefer the Babylon Bee’s formulation, “Persimmon hued”.
The investigation will discover discrimination against asians and whites in favor of blacks. Then what?
This needs to be done to every single university that abased itself to those accusing it of “systemic racism”. Systemic racism is against the law, you see.
Jerk their government funding. And prosecute whoever set the discriminatroy policies. Who am I kidding.
I used to work at a college. A buddy of mine worked in the financial aid department. The “leadership” literally cherry-picks awards based on the reported demographics of the applicants. Which means exactly what you state above, in practice, if not stated explicitly in internal documents, etc.
But I’m quite confident it states that kind of stuff in internal documents, too. The hubris on college campuses, in the form of its perpetually-employed administrators, is enormous. It is stunning.
It’s the result of decades of subsidized education dollars, in the form of loans and federal funding, that keep flowing in no matter what they do. It insulates them from the reality of the world around them.
Now the world around them is becoming blatantly more like colleges, around this kind of thing, at least for the moment (more so than they already have). Sooner or later the internal failings of the institutions and businesses will cause them to re-think what they’re doing, meaning you see the results of the graduation rates of people matriculated with poor SAT scores, and you’ve just saddled them with student loan debt to one degree or another, with no degree, and are college dropouts.
I’m not sure public policy could be formulated to have a worse outcome. Maybe if Biden gets in he can make it even more ruinous.
Um, being pedantic, I guess, in science, white is composed of all colors. Black is the absence of color.
I am a college professor, and the one big thing that I want from Covid–the only good thing I could see coming from it–would be the implosion of higher education. I do not care if I am out of a job. I’d happily go to a high school and teach, though our K-12 system needs to also implode and be rebuilt. If I cannot get a job in teaching because the implosion is so staggering, I can live with that, as long as the system is fixed.
This really, really tickled me. Thank you for posting about it.
There will always be a need for teachers – real teachers, not paper shuffling pedants more interested in retirement than educating their students. If the education system collapsed you could set yourself up as a teacher in the way it worked back in ancient times: hang out a shingle and offer classes to those willing to pay a fee. You are seeing a lot of this in the learning pod movement sparked by the Covid nonsense.
(And yes, it is nonsense. Covid may be deadly to the elderly, but to school-age children, 4 to 18 it is a trivial disease with deaths nation-wide numbered in the low hundreds since February. Send home all the teachers over 55 and run classes normally without the silly masks or social distancing.)
But then the university could not currently make the new certifications required for new or continuing government funding (grants and research contracts from any agency, not just Department of Education). Few if any large universities can survive without those federal grants and contracts.
These “confessions” of racism need to conclude with the statement, “I have done my best but it has been adequate. Therefor I resign effective immediately.” Without that, everything preceding should be ignored as mere blather or, as here, used as the basis for a fraud lawsuit. These phony confessions without resignations are powerful evidence that the concept of honor has disappeared from our institutions that depend on honor.
And more homeschooling for the kids.
Heard on a podcast something about 7% of American kids dropping out of the public school system. Not 7% of the kids who were in it. 7% of the kids.
Perhaps my favorite line.
That was in the PIT where I posted this most amazing bit of rake-stepping I can ever recall.
Princeton to the woke: “Yes, yes, we’re irredeemably racist!”
DoE to Princeton: “Oh, really? . . . well then, time to yank your funding!”