Do you think the University has gone too far in one direction

[Utehomer42]

As an alumnus of the University, I loved my time there and have so many found memories. But in the recent years I feel like the U has gone off the “deep end” with regard to “woke politics”. The U has always been more liberal and non-LDS compared to all other schools in the state (besides Westminster) and I have always been fine with it. But in the recent years, just like all “socially just” college campuses the U seems to head into a direction of pushing more left leaning ideas to students. My daughter is beginning her first year at the U this year and besides the required gender studies class that she has to take, when I was in the men’s bathroom, there were menstruation products and no urinals. I thought at first I walked into the women’s bathroom, but nope, I was in the mens. Then I looked it up, they do in the name of “menstruation equality”. Political and social beliefs besides, I feel if the U is selling out, to be just like all the other major universities and attract out of state kids. What are your guys’ thoughts on this?

[RustyShackleford]

Yes. I don’t like it at all.

[Clark Emett]

Nah, there are trans students at the U. I know a couple personally. Both have grown up in conservative, religious Utah a place generally pretty hostile to their identity—-especially now that they are the conservatives favorite punching bag.

If having menstruation products in the men’s room helps a marginalized and vulnerable group feel their dignity is affirmed, I say put them in all the men’s rooms.

I feel the same way about CRT and all the other “woke” goblins conservatives fret about that probably exist at the U. It’s a tiny blue island in a vast ocean of red here in Utah.

I like that the U exists for all the brilliant Trans, gay, and other marginalized groups here in Utah. Make space for everyone, I say.

[EagleMountainUte]

If America is a democracy as we are told repeatedly and the majority actually don’t want CRT and wokeness to exist then it shouldn’t exist.

Ibram X. Kendi, in his book “How to Be an Antiracist” states, “The only remedy to racist discrimination is antiracist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

The dangers of the extreme left have actually never been fully been held to the fire in this country. I don’t think extreme minority principles should be pushed on a majority for equity sake. I think Universities and education in America should return to teaching Science and Math in order for humanity to progress.

[Clark Emett]

Wait…I’m legitimately confused about what you are saying; are you explicitly saying that putting menstruation products in the men’s room at the U so that trans students can use the bathroom is, “extreme minority principles (being) be pushed on a majority for equity sake”?

Maybe you mean something else?

If you mean CRT I guess we can have a whole argument about that, but yeah I do kinda want to discriminate against white nationalists and the KKK marching around at the U. If I was university president and I saw a bunch of Stormfront types harassing our minority students on campus I’d boot them out. My guess is that you would too, though. Maybe me, you, and Ibram X Kendi aren’t that far apart! 😉

[EagleMountainUte]

Do we commonly have white nationalist and KKK marching at the U? I mean that is just a what aboutism of an extreme that doesn’t exist. CRT is just another form of racism.

As far as providing for a minority it is about creating a new normal.
From the website:
“This effort from the ASUU and U Facilities marks the University of Utah as the first collegiate institution in Utah to provide this level of inclusivity to its students. U Facilities, and those involved in the project, proudly embrace this new inclusive normal.”

[12PAC]

…’then it shouldn’t exist’ is the really concerning part about this. We are not, nor have ever been a pure democracy where ‘majority rules’. In fact, our representative form of democracy is precisely to prevent majority, authoritarian, fascist or theocratic rule. Brush up on your Federalist Papers and read about ‘factions’ and how the founders believed the more views the better, because the minority views will be protected from the majority. Try #51.

So the idea that CRT ‘should not exist’ because some- maybe even a majority (doubt it) don’t like it, is completely contrary to our founding ideals and secular experiment. Plenty of us still want our children to learn true history and understand other’s experiences.

Canceling CRT is ignorant. The left may have started cancel culture, but no one should be surprised that the right has taken it to extreme levels based on fear grievance.

[UtMtBiker]

Very well said. There is nothing scarier then a society with no place for minority opinion. I didn’t see many conservatives complaining about the forced cult like recital of the pledge of aligiance in schools for 100+ years. Now when they see a tampon in a bathroom, their rights are being trampled. Didn’t see many liberals chanting “my body my choice” when people were getting fired for refusing to put a vaccine in thier body. It’s not about left and right. It’s about the fact that money and power has created the 2 party system to control the populous. Consistently give each side something to fight about and nobody is held accountable for dropping bombs on children, over throwing foreign governments, assassinations, destroying the middle class, taking bribes, etc.

[ABC123]

Respect my pronouns they screech as they call women chest feeding bleeders with a bonus hole.

If genitals don’t define gender, how does removing them affirm it?

This is where we have come to.

Now consider where we are going.

A mother is contemplating the idea of pressing charges agains a vet because he would not treat he son who identifies as a cat. 🐈‍⬛

pic.twitter.com/Vqu4Uute4n

— John Mappin (@JohnMappin) August 8, 2023

[UtahMan17]

What is your worry? That because a student has to take a gender studies class their freshman year or sees a tampon in a bathroom they’ll be helpless to becoming a democrat?

Also pretty quick to the trigger complaining about a course that hasn’t started yet. Why not at least find out what is being taught before turning to moral outrage?

[Central Coast Ute]

Would you not be upset if public universities started pushing Christian studies classes and requiring it? And don’t try to tell me they’re different because wokeism has become a religion to the left.

No one cares if a trans student uses tampons. The problem is the Lia Thomas’s of the world taking over women’s sports and threatening to erase women completely. Let me guess, that won’t happen? Yeah, where have we heard that before?

[HoosierUte]

Did I accidentally drop into UF.net? Get it together. We are in fall camp/realignment and we are clutching our pearls about some maxi pads in the bathroom? You sure you didn’t need one?

[EagleMountainUte]

Let me catch you up. Utah is in the big 12 and the QB spot is in rough shape again with Barnes being the best option if Rising isn’t able to play.

[ProudUte]

At first glance – I tend to agree with you. But, one of the posters above talks about some trans people close to him.

I don’t think we should bend over backward to change everything for a few people. That does not make sense. On the other hand – we can all help improve this world by being more respectful of everyone, even when we do not believe the same as they do.

As Dr. Richard Carlsen wrote in one of his books, “We will all see the world differently …” We need to accept that no one person will ever see the world exactly as we do. That doesn’t make one person right and the other wrong. That being said, the University of Utah can’t make accommodations for every individual.

[Waybackutefan]

Woke? Isn’t that a topic for the Political arena? Mods can you move this to the proper Politics forum so it can be ignored by most of us.

[Roy Rangum]

Genuinely curious: what building in the U were you in?

Was it a humanities building where gender studies are taught, or was it the engineering building?

All universities lean left, and within a university certain departments are always going to be much more left, but I feel skeptical the U of U has removed all urinals everywhere in the name of “wokeness”.

I’m a U of U employee on the medical / hospital side of things, and on potentially political subjects, I feel like the U as a whole mostly tries to be center left, which is probably as good as balance as you can hope for in a public university. While the U clearly wants to be accommodating to specific groups that have been caught up in the woke wars, I think the U also wants to accommodate its bread and butter student which likely is a little more conservative than students at other universities.

[Tony (admin)]

Maybe we just have to move to having single stall “bathrooms” with no gender attached to them. Regardless of what flavor the pooper or peeper is, they have privacy and can’t be accused of being in the wrong bathroom or whatever.

[Central Coast Ute]

The athletic teams are going to need a ton of showers to accommodate every member of the team.

[RedUte14]

that’s what they do in europe

[UtMtBiker]

If you’re concerned about who is using a particular bathroom, I really question how informed you are about “woke issues”. What you really should be concerned about is the powerful interests that have put this in front of you as something to be concerned about. It’s just another tactic to keep the people fighting each other instead of holding them accountable. All of these issues are used as a basis to take away rights, primarily freedom of speech. When you start labeling things as “hate speech” and deplatform people who have ideas that are outside of concerned thinking, you lose freedom. Free speech is needed to protect the fringe not the majority. When you start crying about bathrooms, you’re right where they want you.