Macon Reporter

Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) is blasting a new mandate that requires all Illinois State University students to complete at least one course focused on issues of inclusion, diversity and equity.

“Naturally, this requirement was recommended by…wait for it…ISU’s Campus Climate Assessment Task Force,” Caulkins recently posted on Facebook. “Just additional proof that public schools have become nothing more than indoctrination Petrie dishes for the left. A Heritage Foundation study shows that university DEI programs are ineffective, overstaffed and squander significant amounts of taxpayer money.”

The Diversity, Equity and Access in U.S. Society (IDEAS) requirement is set to officially kick in for new students starting in fall 2023, with the Illinois State University Academic Senate having voted in October to approve it.

The requirement can be satisfied by completing an IDEAS-approved course at ISU, an approved course in the Illinois Articulation Initiative General Education Core Curriculum or a baccalaureate-oriented associate’s degree at an Illinois community college. The idea for the requirement dates back to 2016, from the Campus Climate Assessment Task Force in 2016.

“One piece of feedback that we got from student, faculty and staff survey and focus groups was that there was kind of a missing piece in our curriculum for students,” ISU associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences Rocio Rivadeneyra told WGLT.org. “That we didn’t really have a class that all students had to take that focused on domestic diversity, the issues we have with diversity here in the U.S.”

Over the next year, the exact IDEAS courses are to be discussed and debated in hopes of having them ready for students in the Spring of 2023.

More than six in 10 (63%) college and universities now have a diversity requirement in place of are in the process of establishing one, according to the Education Encyclopedia on Multiculturalism in Higher Education,

“When you’re in a classroom, you’re in a workspace, you’re in the media, and you’re interacting with people who are different from you, you can kind of put yourself in their shoes and come to a better understanding by having a history of these courses,” added Rivadeneyra, who chaired the task force that made the IDEAS recommendation. “It helps understand different histories, perspectives, different worldviews that people come into in situations.”