The grant is to make grad students “agents of change” which probably sounds more unsettling than the NIH intended —but here we are.
According to a report from The Center Square, The National Institute of Health —yes, that National Institute of Health —has allocated more than $100,000 of taxpayer cash to train students at the NIGMS T32 predoctoral training program in Molecular and Cellular Biology at UC Davis in equity and inclusiveness.
Federal documents reveal the money is for students to lead equity and inclusivity training for their classmates at UC Davis.
“We expect that our novel curriculum will significantly improve mentorship and DEIA [diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility] awareness across a broad range of graduate students in biological sciences,” reads the project description. “Our practical focus aims to empower them to become agents of change, leading to a renewed focus on sustaining a climate of equity, inclusivity, respect, and justice in our institution.”
They even got “climate” in there for bonus points.
According to The Center Square, the funding will create a 10-week course for graduate students called, “Mentoring Up in an Equitable and Inclusive manner” —which is just liberal word salad for what will likely become the most skipped class on campus.
“…graduate curricula often fail to sufficiently acknowledge that our society carries within it historical and deep-rooted injustices and biases,” the report description reads. “This may lead students from backgrounds and communities who suffered from biases and injustices to feel less supported, reduce their sense of belonging, and hamper their growth as valued members of the scientific community.”
10 weeks of anti-American nonsense —that’s worth the $15K tuition.
The program has many detractors —one of which is Jonathan Butcher, a policy expert at the Heritage Foundation.
“This grant program distracts from the purpose for which students are studying — to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in their field,” Butcher says. “This grant description is saturated in identity politics and racial buzzwords. It will not help molecular biology students to learn molecular biology if they sit through sessions telling them that they have ‘deep-rooted biases.'”
“Taxpayers should reject the idea that students should be thrown off their studies for a project like this, and they should also be asking why students should be part of a diversity training programs that have not demonstrated positive impact on participants,” Butcher adds.
Can’t argue with that.
