As an institution dedicated to the critical enhancement of the mind, a university should provide a unique arena for open dialog, freedom of thought and the unfettered debate of all controversial ideas. Competing opinions should be discussed and argued among engaged students and faculty, free from coercive interference at the hands of powerful administrators. As the bright new students of the class of 2007 arrive in the fall, they have a right to expect nothing less from the school they have chosen to attend.
But sadly, the University Administration and the Board of Visitors recently issued a stealthy decree that stabs at the very heart of liberal education and intellectual freedom at U.Va. On May 31, soon after final exams ended and students left Grounds for the summer, the BOV announced a new "mandatory diversity training" program to be imposed upon every undergraduate student at the University. In a memo published on February 3 of this year, Vice President for Student Affairs Pat Lampkin described the mandatory nature of the new diversity training system. "With such a system in place," Lampkin wrote chillingly, "U.Va. would be able to require students to participate in the training and block them from registering for classes until they completed the program."
According to the deceptive pleasantries of administrators, this program will "provide entering students with the opportunity to gain insights into the way their own cultural, ethnic or racial expectations and experiences influence their interaction with other students, faculty and staff
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