Undercover video shows that Bowling Green State still has DEI, while some law schools still require DEI courses to graduate
Bowling Green State University became the most recent example of a higher education institution in Ohio that still forces its students to adopt diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology.
Concurrently, another report shows that major universities in the Buckeye State require DEI courses to graduate from their law schools.
Accuracy in Media, which has been exposing the left-wing bias on Ohio’s college and universities’ campuses via their undercover reporting, published a video on Tuesday, in which Department of Human Services Chair and Professor at BGSU Adam Watkins apparently admitted that a student’s education “would not be hindered by right-wing political interests,” which, in this case, meant DEI initiatives, which are still present on the campus.
Accuracy in Media previously exposed Kent State University, the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Toledo for continuing to push the DEI ideology, even though it was banned both on the federal and state levels.
Watkins told the undercover journalist, who was pretending to be a concerned parent of a high school boy thinking about either staying in New York City and attending New York University or moving to Ohio and attending BGSU that even though the university was impacted by the anti-DEI laws, he said that he doesn’t think that they “compromised the academic integrity or the substance of the social work program.”
“They have had to rename a few courses to align with certain expectations set by the state,” he said. “However, the social work program does have an accrediting body specific to their discipline that requires, in order for them to maintain accreditation, that they still include components in the curriculum that align with” DEI.
Watkins added that he hopes that both federal and state authorities would just stop the process of elimination of DEI on campuses and move on to “something else.”
Watkins also said that, unlike other colleges and universities, including NYU, BGSU allegedly puts even more emphasis on DEI because of the university’s location and a “more homogenous student group.”
“We feel more compelled to try to prepare our students for environments” that also implement DEI, he said, because their students,” through the lived experience, have not been exposed” to the ideology.
President of Accuracy in Media, Adam Guillette, told Ohio.News that “Ameicans cannot assume that rural schools in red states aren’t promoting far-left politics.”
“The trustees of these universities must launch major reform campaigns. Administrative positions need to be dramatically scaled back, and the Ohio legislature needs to prohibit professors from promoting far-left politics in the classroom,” he wrote in an email.
At the state level, the most impactful legislation is Senate Bill 1, introduced by state Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, last year, which requires Ohio colleges and universities to eliminate undergraduate degrees considered “low-return.”
Cirino told Ohio.News that he is pleased with his bill, adding, however, that there is still some work to be done, specifically mentioning the DEI ideology.
Defending Education recently published a report that found the American Bar Association still requires ABA-accredited colleges and universities across the country to require their law students to pass a DEI requirement before graduation.
Even though BGSU doesn’t have a law school, other universities, including The Ohio State University, the University of Cincinnati, Cleveland State University, the University of Toledo, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Dayton, and the University of Akron are among the universities in Ohio that have law schools and are accredited by the ABA and, therefore, required to force their law students to fulfill the DEI requirement.
