(LifeSiteNews) — The University System of Georgia’s (USG’s) Board of Regents is instituting sweeping reforms to roll back “woke” ideology in its education and campus practices, in the name of strengthening academic integrity and respecting freedom of speech.
“All admissions processes and decisions shall be free of ideological tests, affirmations, and oaths, including diversity statements,” reads the new policy the Board adopted last month, Campus Reform reports. “No applicant for admission shall be asked to or required to affirmatively ascribe to or opine about political beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles, as a condition for admission.” The university also may not punish support or opposition for “any political campaign or candidate for political office, political party, or political organization.”
Going forward, USG says it will hire and evaluate people only on the basis of “knowledge, skills, and abilities,” rather than race- or sex-based Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) factors. Staff and student training will now promote “civil discourse, open inquiry, robust debate, intellectual diversity, and respect for others” rather than “ideological tests”; and official USG institutions commit to “remain neutral on social and political issues unless such an issue is directly related to the institution’s core mission.” University resources will be forbidden from use in “political activities.”
Starting next year, its schools will even begin requiring students to study America’s founding documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Federalist Papers.
“Colleges and universities not only equip students for the jobs of tomorrow, they also must prepare them to be contributing members of society and to understand the ideals of freedom and democracy that make America so exceptional,” the Board said in a statement. “As such, the proposed policy changes strengthen the requirements for civics instruction across the system by including foundational primary sources such as the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, The Georgia Constitution, the Federalist Papers and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
“These proposed updates strengthen USG’s academic communities,” it added. “They allow institutions to foster a campus environment where people have the freedom to share their thoughts and learn from one another through objective scholarship and inquiry. They reflect an unyielding obligation to protect freedom, provide quality higher education and promote student success.”
More than 30 states have introduced legislation eliminating DEI programs from education, as part of a broader push against so-called “woke ideology” spearheaded by Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Conservatives have long criticized DEI and other forms of identity politics for stoking rather than curing division and focusing education toward left-wing political indoctrination at the expense of learning.
In May, insiders from the University of California-Los Angeles’ (UCLA’s) prestigious David Geffen School of Medicine warned that the school’s diversity fixation had led to a crisis in which more than half of students in various cohorts admitted since 2020 fail standardized tests for basic medical knowledge of subjects ranging from emergency medicine and family medicine to internal medicine and pediatrics.