Feel sorry for insects? University of Arizona DEI urges students to treat errors as “marginalized” groups.

The University of Arizona requires students to take classes in the “Diversity and Equity” attributes, which creates an odd design in some science majors. (Photo: Epics/Getty Images)

In perhaps one of the strangest uses of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the curriculum I have ever seen, the University of Arizona currently has classes in which students are told to “live like a bug” in order to understand “marginalized” groups.

According to a new report by Timothy Minelli of the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based think tank, students enrolling in an entomology course at the University of Arizona are asked “in personal writing assignments to reflect on the assumptions that shape popular attitudes about insects,” identifying ways how attitudes of difference conflict with self-identity and foster systems of privilege or oppression/marginalization.”

I had heard some crazy and nonsensical analogies and metaphors during the countless equal opportunity trainings we had to go through in Indianapolis Public Schools, but I had never had the opportunity to imagine being a bug, so I could understand how my “privilege” affected a non-binary unicorn.

Can you imagine spending $140,000 for your child to attend a lecture?

Please note that I only taught the insect units to middle and high school students, although I did take a graduate course in entomology. I searched through old course documents and didn’t find a single place where students could gain academic benefits by making wings out of tissue paper and pretending to be blind, perhaps to spend time with one of the “sensory disabilities.”

I’m not sure how that cures racism or any other bad word with an “-ism” or “-phobia” at the end, but I only have two master’s degrees in education. Apparently you need a PhD. in education to come up with such stupid things.

The curricula for other classes at the University of Arizona are not quite as cartoonish, but they are equally nonsensical.

Minelli’s report includes courses with extra credit for participating in “allyship training” provided by the campus LGBTQ+ center, a curriculum promoting the debunked claim that American institutions are “deeply rooted” in racism, the questionable claim that not every American citizen has equal access to ” American Dream” and community counseling for students accused of saying “problematic” things.

If someone accuses a student of saying something considered problematic, the syllabus of one anthropology class encourages students to “resist the temptation to become defensive. Instead, apologize, reflect on yourself, learn, and do better next time.”

Of course, nothing is said about checking whether a statement is objectively problematic, but strict objectivity is clearly not something praised at the University of Arizona. Professors openly present and praise one political perspective and set of policy recommendations while condemning all others, such as calling for racial reparations for Black author and activist Ta-Nehisi Coates and assigning students to “share their favorite quote from the article.”

Beginning in 2022, the University of Arizona has revised the core curriculum required for all students to include 32 credit hours, 21 of which must be from classes identified as “Discovering Perspectives” and “Building Connections.”

You’ve probably already guessed what attributes the University of Arizona requires to be considered a class fit for one, but if not, “Diversity and Equity” is at the top of the list. By 2026, all students will be required to complete at least two of these diversity and equity courses to even graduate.

“When classes are required to look at everything through a ‘diversity and equity’ lens, as is the case at the University of Arizona,” Minella told The Daily Signal, “everything will be skewed — even science courses, as we see here.”

None of the programs at the University of Arizona include required courses in American history, government, citizenship, or the U.S. Constitution. This violates 2019 requirements set by the Arizona Board of Regents, the governing body of Arizona’s three public universities.

Under the 2021 policy change, the Arizona Board of Regents is requiring all public universities to complete courses that include:

(I) how US history continues to shape the present; (II) the basic principles of American constitutional democracy and how they are applied to the republican form of government; (III) The United States Constitution and major American constitutional debates and events; (IV) the basic founding documents and how they shaped the nature and functions of American institutions of local government; (V) landmark Supreme Court cases that shaped law and society; (VI) civic activities necessary for effective citizenship and civic participation in a self-governing society – for example, civil dialogue and civil dispute; and (VII) basic economic knowledge enabling critical evaluation of public policy options and making professional and personal decisions.

The University of Arizona did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about its Diversity & Equity courses or to confirm that its programs do not meet the requirements of the Arizona Board of Regents.