President Donald Trump has spent much of his second term so far fighting against the various woke progressive programs plaguing academia today. But American University – a prominent Washington, DC, school that receives federal funding via grants and student loans – is stridently doubling down on DEI in the classic jargon of leftist social revolutionaries.
“Founded on principles that challenge colonialism, racism, elitism, and xenophobia, [American University’s School of Education] demonstrates resilience and innovation as it navigates the rapidly evolving educational landscape,” an April 16 post on the college’s website begins.
A defiant quote from a university official follows.
“Now, more than ever, we at SOE heed the drum major calling of our mission, vision, values, and our community committed to eliminating oppression through the education ecosystem,” Interim Dean Rodney Hopson declared in a personal blog post.
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order decreeing that organizations receiving federal funding must abolish DEI initiatives. On April 23, he signed another order calling for more vigorous enforcement on the matter by accrediting agencies that oversee the granting of federal aid to US colleges.
School for Radicals
Dean Hopson and the AU School of Education he now runs openly expound the tenets of revolutionary social change. “[A]dvancing social justice” is a stated purpose of the SOE “Vision,” while “Equity,” “Antiracism and Social Justice,” and “Diversity and Inclusion” are three of the school’s six listed “Core Values.”
Hopson’s belligerence even comes across as he discusses something as simple as personal health care. Under a March 21 blog post on “self-care” he highlights the words of Audre Lorde, a self-described “black, lesbian, feminist, socialist” 20th-century poet who has long been celebrated on the hardline Marxist political left.
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare,” Hopson quotes Lorde as saying. She is better known for another, more inflammatory quote: “Revolution is not a one-time event.”
Hopson’s gobbledygook-filled official AU bio reveals a credentialed figure highly committed to that cause. Should this man be running an academic school at a major US university located in the nation’s capital?
“Hopson’s cumulative work is driven by quests to: a) understand the role of language as a harbinger of social and educational change, especially in post-apartheid and postcolonial nation states that wrestle with the tensions and opportunities of democracy and freedom; and b), emphasize the transformative possibility of developing mechanisms that promote educational and social equity through the development of communities of practice in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary ways to broaden participation, inclusion, and diversity for those often forgotten and underserved in schools, community, social systems, and the larger society.”
This is what American University has eagerly attached itself to. In March, Hopson co-authored a “peer-reviewed article” for the Journal of College and Character titled “Navigating the Backlash and Reimagining Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in a Changing Sociopolitical and Legal Landscape.”
One of Hopson’s co-authors is Lia Epperson, an AU law professor who “serves on the National Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union,” her American U. bio states. Epperson “has appeared on news outlets including the BBC, CNN, NBC News, CBS, NPR, and C-SPAN,” the university boasts.
The article is meant to promote a reaction against the anti-DEI backlash working its way through the halls of US universities today.
“This piece traces the origins of DEI and anti-DEI movements, examines current legal threats and restrictive policies, and offers strategies to sustain and strengthen DEI initiatives in higher education,” an abstract reads.
DEI Death Spiral: Openly Racist and Academically Frivolous
The policies of educational racialism have run amok at AU for years. The School of Education hosts an annual Summer Institute on Education, Equity, and Justice “to highlight new practices and strategies for addressing the educational needs of Black, Brown, and indigenous students,” a primer states. White people need not apply?
The 2025 affair will feature a “Fostering Antiracism through the Arts in PreK-12 Education” event because, as with personal health care, everything must be ruthlessly politicized in the pursuit of total social justice.
The usual progressive/globalist Big Money sugar daddies are again active here. Hopson’s work has been underwritten by the Ford Foundation, his AU bio declares, while SOE professor and Summer Institute participant Dr. Corbin Campbell has had her research “funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” her bio reveals.
What are Ford and Gates financially supporting? Among the “degrees and programs” offered by the School of Education is an “Antiracist Administration, Supervision, and Leadership Certificate Program.” “Among today’s greatest challenges in the United States is the need to create more equitable, antiracist schools,” accompanying text explaining this “Virtual Certificate” reads.
“The failure to meet this need for all of our children – regardless of racial, cultural, economic, or linguistic background – widens the opportunity gap between those who thrive and those who struggle.”
It doesn’t sound as hard as quantum physics, does it?
“American University’s fully virtual 18-credit post-masters graduate certificate in Antiracist Administration, Supervision, and Leadership prepares education leaders with the required content and knowledge, as well as the necessary mindset shift, to dismantle racist practices and policies in classrooms, schools, and districts,” the school elaborates.
This is a real university fully accredited and operating in the United States today.
“No GRE test required,” AU exclaims in a bright box. The Graduate Record Examination is a standardized test used to determine if an applicant is qualified for graduate school.
“Only 18 credits to completion,” the school touts in a second box.
Such lightweight certification hints at a motive that may just matter as much as ideology, if not more, to the DEI stalwarts on the American University faculty fighting to keep their floundering ship afloat. For if the Trump administration’s attempt to root out all this nonsense from higher academia succeeds, a lot of remarkably unskilled individuals are going to be out of jobs.
