Stitt accuses colleges of ‘indoctrination’

Georgia Jones

Contributing Writer

Governor Kevin Stitt gave his 2023 State of the State Address to the 59th Legislature last Monday, detailing his legislative agenda for the year. He outlined his current focus on business, protection for Oklahoman’s, promotion of freedoms, and education. During his speech, Stitt discussed how business and education go together in Oklahoma.

“As companies flood to Oklahoma, workforce is the number one challenge facing businesses,” Stitt said. “Let’s make sure our universities and higher education are partnering with companies to train the workforce of tomorrow. I want to challenge OU and OSU to grow and deliver a quality education to 40,000 students by 2030.”

He then discussed the need for nurses, engineers for aerospace, teachers, and software developers for tech. The governor placed emphasis on growing the economy inside Oklahoma and improving our workforce. Shortly after, he then accused the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives set forth by universities and places of higher education of indoctrination.

“Because when we send our kids to college, we expect our tuition to pay for their education, not their indoctrination,” Stitt said. “I want our universities to have less DEI officers and more career placement counselors.”

Indoctrination is defined as “the process of teaching a person or group to accept a set of beliefs uncritically,” or “with a lack of criticism.” The DEI offices that are implemented on various university campuses are created to promote fair treatment and full participation of all people. DEI officers educate on diversity, equity, and inclusion, while also ensuring state bills such as HB 1775 are upheld on campus.

“I personally don’t feel like I was forced to learn about DEI, because it was something that I was already eager to learn about,” said Rebecca Schoolcraft, a UCO alumni. “One of UCO’s six pillars is even ‘Global and Cultural Competencies,’ so I went into the school with the knowledge that they were going to offer opportunities to focus on that.

The events they created on campus to promote it were never forceful or anything, and I never found that the classes offered to students were prejudiced or not inclusive. I personally felt they always made sure to involve everyone in that form of education.”

Most courses offered at universities relating to DEI are electives, meaning the students, who are also mostly young adults, are electing to take the courses on their own account. This would mean universities couldn’t be indoctrinating their students, as the ‘persons or groups’ are not being ‘taught to accept a set of beliefs without criticism.’ Courses related to diversity, equity, or inclusion often have open-debate style classrooms, with the students taking the charge on topics and opinions.

“The professors generally let us lead the discussion in these classes,” said Maddie Curtis, a senior UCO student. “I’ve never had a professor force us to discuss something we didn’t want to. If you’re seeking diversity and want to know about other ways of thinking, it’s going to be a little uncomfortable at first, because that’s how learning works. Nothing is forced upon us as stu-