Is 'Boomer Sooner' Going Bust? University of Oklahoma Donors Pull Money Over DEI
By Chris Queen 12:02 PM on May 15, 2023
The nefarious Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) movement is taking over academia. Universities all across the country are putting policies in place that prioritize addressing racial grievances over academics and merit. But at the University of Oklahoma, some donors are fighting back by withholding donations over the school’s capitulation to the DEI agenda.
Neurosurgeon Dr. Christopher Boxell spoke with Fox News Digital about how the commitment to “equity” is destroying the university to which he has donated a quarter of a million dollars over the years.
“I’m not happy with where they’re headed,” Boxell said. “The diversity, equity, and inclusion [agenda] I think is better named DIE for DEI because I think that’s what’s going to happen because of it.”
“We all should be looking at his best qualified. I don’t care which race they’re from. If they’re best qualified, that’s who should be there,” he added.
Boxell also expressed his concerns about the university using $18,000 worth of funds to host a drag queen event.
Another former donor, Susan Bergen, said that her family, which had averaged $50,000 in donations a year for 35 years, was concerned about wokeness in the University of Oklahoma’s education department.
“They train the teachers for the state of Oklahoma,” she told Fox News Digital. “So we count on them to put out quality teachers. And what they’re doing is sending a lot of woke people that believe somehow White people are bad and wrong.”
Related: How Anti-White Discrimination Undermines Our Culture and Citizenship
John Brock, another donor with $2 million in gifts to the University of Oklahoma, has stopped giving to the school over its emphasis on critical race theory.
“I think that everybody ought to be treated with respect and that we ought to spread love and kindness,” he said. “And they have a requirement that you go to a three-hour class to graduate… that teaches people that if you’re a White person, you’re guilty of racism, even though you don’t think so,” adding that “they teach people that no matter how hard they work and White people are going to keep them down. I don’t think any of those things are true, in my opinion.”
Brock said he believes that basing curriculum on racial grievances is harmful and counterproductive to helping graduates flourish in society.
“You know, I think they call it wokeness,” he said. “That’s the whole problem. In the first place, they don’t want people to think [for themselves] anyhow. So I think [even if] the course was not harmful, which I think it is, I think it was not necessary. I think that we need to treat people equally and treat everybody with respect, spread kindness and love, reject hate and resentment, and practice forgiveness.”
It’s easy to think that donors pulling money over DEI and woke initiatives is something new, but it’s been happening for at least a couple of years. Former donor Mo Anderson wrote a letter to the University of Oklahoma’s president in 2021 decrying the educational direction at the university.
“OU has embedded a Marxist-derived worldview in its colleges via so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI) programs that foster racial and social division,” Anderson wrote. “OU’s DEI efforts produce the opposite of diversity and inclusion. Mainstream Oklahomans know they will now be labeled ‘privileged’ individuals regardless of life circumstances, meaning OU is not a welcoming place for all students.”
If enough long-time big-money donors give up on making contributions, will it get the university’s attention? There’s a lot of DEI to overcome, so time will tell.
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