Discriminations

In a wonderfully surprising man-bites-dog story, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports this morning that

[t]he affirmative-action officer at the University of North Dakota has warned academic departments and programs publicly opposed to the institution’s Fighting Sioux nickname that they may be creating an “unwelcome” environment for students who support the image.

In a memorandum sent on September 24 to five top administrators at the university, Sally J. Page, the affirmative-action officer, said that academic departments and university programs that publicly stated their opposition to the nickname in a recent advertisement in a local newspaper may also have put the university at risk of a federal civil-rights lawsuit.

“Should any individual or group file a complaint that he/she was denied an opportunity to participate or fully enjoy the services provided because the individual did not agree with the program’s position opposing the logo or the Sioux name, then the university easily could be in a position of trying to defend itself from a discrimination or a hostile-environment claim based on race,” Ms. Page wrote in the memo....

I wonder if any academic departments, programs, or administrative offices of the University of North Dakota have gone on the record with their support of racial and ethnic preferences. Surely there are many students there, and at other institutions, who are made to feel uncomfortable and even “unwelcome” because of their support for colorblind, non-discriminatory equal treatment.