A Clemson University administrator is hoping to issue a new requirement for those looking to run for student government.
To weed out unsuitable candidates, Altheia Richardson, director of the university’s Gantt Multicultural Center, suggested that those interested in running should demonstrate a certain level of “intercultural competence.”
She presented the idea to the Clemson Undergraduate Student Government (CUSG) Senate this week.
“What would it look like to have a standard for if you’re going to be elected as an officer, or hold a seat within CUSG, that you have to demonstrate that you have a certain level of intercultural competence, before you’re allowed to take that office, or that seat,” she told the group.
So how exactly would students prove they're interculturally competent? According to Richardson, they could take a training course or participate in a workshop - or “something like that” - before the democratic process begins.
Clearly, Richardson hasn’t fleshed out the details yet…and it doesn’t sound like she’ll have to. Most members of the CUSG Senate were (rightly) horrified by the idea.
“Ms. Richardson's comments about multiculturalism at the last Senate meeting unnerved me,” Samuel Thompson, a student government senator told Campus Reform. “Vetting the candidates ideologically before elections even happen, through a process of measuring their level of commitment to ‘inclusivity’ and ‘multiculturalism,’ represents a kind of creepy totalitarianism that has no place at a true university.”
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“The purpose of having a student government is so that all views of students are represented—not just the ones that fit your ideology,” he concluded.
Similarly, Matt Phillips, another student senator, told Campus Reform, “Clemson needs to decide exactly the kind of school it wants to be. Will we allow students of all opinions to be represented, or do we believe our agenda is more important? If we choose the latter, we compromise everything we say we stand for.”
Richardson’s idea comes a week after the University announced it would be introducing a mandatory diversity course for incoming students; just more proof that colleges are falling even farther down liberal rabbit hole.
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