Case Western shells out $500 grants for social justice conferences

Case Western Reserve University is offering to cover the cost of travel expenses and housing for students seeking to attend “social justice” conferences.

According to an advertisement on the school’s website, its “Social Justice Institute” will provide $500 scholarships for students “interested in attending conferences with a focus on social justice” in order to help them “enhance their educational, professional, and personal development.”

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Successful applicants will demonstrate that their conference of choice “in some way” supports and upholds “the institute’s definition of social justice,” which is one of “eradicating systems of oppression” with the purpose of “advancing fairness and equality through the redistribution and expansion of resources, and exalting human dignity and respect.”

Recipients of the scholarship will receive funds to “assist with travel, registrations fees, lodging,” or any other “approved expenses.”

A recent “strategic plan” laid out by the institute notes that one of its primary goals for the upcoming school year is to “secure a permanent annual operating budget” that is “university supported” so that it can secure “a stand-alone building with offices, meeting space, program space, and community meeting rooms.”

The institute, notably, was founded by Professor Rhonda Williams, who, after retiring, outlined her founding vision for the project in a farewell letter.

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“[The purpose] was to create and institutionalize a space where social justice, equity, and moral courage not only serve as foundations for critical intellectual analyses, but also inspire educational opportunities, scholarly engagement, community bridge-building, and actions on and off campus–all in order to challenge oppression and contribute to making the world better for more people,” she wrote at the time.

Campus Reform reached out to the university for more details on the scholarship fund, but did not receive a response.

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