Report indicates leftist Stanford students 'blacklisted' profs for not complying with woke academic accommodations in 2020
The Stanford Review suggests that students at Stanford sent numerous unsolicited emails to hundreds of professors, insisting on a reduction in academic expectations.
Citing the 'trauma' being experienced by African American students at the time, students asked for favors like '[p]roper academic accommodations for Black students.'
A new report suggests that Stanford University students, acting in pursuit of racial and social justice, emailed hundreds of professors during the COVID-19 pandemic, demanding they lower academic standards and blacklisted them if they chose not to comply.
In the spring semester of 2020, at the start of the pandemic, Stanford made all courses pass-fail. Despite this, many students pushed for more radical changes, according to recent reporting by The Stanford Review.
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Forming a coalition, Stanford students cold-emailed hundreds of professors, demanding that academic standards be lowered even further.
The Stanford Review writes, “Professors who met and supported the extreme demands of students to radically overhaul their academic standards received a green check.” Additionally, “Those who didn’t—and retained even some basic academic standards, or those who merely did not make ‘any announcement acknowledging current events’—were blacklisted.”
An image of an email template that The Stanford Review reports was used by students to message professors began with the suggestion that, “I am a Black/non-Black student in your ... class and am reaching out for support with balancing academics and the weight of various world events occurring all at the same moment.”
Citing the “trauma” being experienced by African American students at the time, students asked for favors like “[p]roper academic accommodations for Black students,” professors be “[a]ttentive and compassionate to individual requests for academic support,” assignment extensions, and “solidarity and support to Black students.”
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The report also suggests students maintained a blacklist of professors, in effect grading them by how they gave in to the demands of the cold emails.
The Stanford Review shows that among those 200 individuals on the blacklist for not complying was Professor Dawson Engler, who was marked down because he did not “feel comfortable gutting the class … more than it [had] been by the pandemic.” Professor Aaron Lindenberg was also placed on the list because he did not “make any announcement acknowledging current events.”
During the semester, Stanford made grades pass-fail for various reasons, including “ensuring education equity, given that some students, especially those within our most vulnerable communities, may have limited access to broadband connection or find themselves in challenging home environments ill-suited for learning and quiet study.”
Campus Reform has contacted Stanford University, professors accused of being blacklisted, as well as The Stanford Review for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
