Univ charges for online feminist 'quest badges'
Colorado State University is now offering feminist "quest badges" for display on resumes, social media, and email signatures.
While the courses are not for college credit, they do cost money.
Colorado State University now offers an online curriculum through which students can earn “quest badges” to demonstrate their familiarity with feminist concepts.
The two-course program called “Introducing Feminist Frameworks” walks students through levels of “personal and professional development opportunities” for individuals who wish to learn more about “intersectional feminism” and “associated concepts” with the goal of enacting “personal, political, and social change.”
Material for the program is more extensive than that of typical gender, diversity, and inclusion training, according to its description, which explains that the program “advances critical understandings of feminism, intersectionality, gender, and systems of oppression.”
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Students working through the program receive their first “quest badge” when they have familiarized themselves with concepts such as gender, privilege, intersectionality, oppression, and “social identities.”
Quest Badge number two is eared by completing the “Women Supporting Other Women” section of the curriculum, which addresses issues such as “internalized oppression” and “failures to listen to the experiences of women of color.”
Each Quest Badge will cost students $75, unless they opt for the all-inclusive Mastery Badge for a discounted price of $127. The university notes on its website that badges expire after three years “to ensure up-to-date knowledge.”
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Earned badges do not carry any college credit. Rather, CSU essentially markets the courses as resume builders.
”Upon successful completion of each course, students are awarded a digital badge, which can be added to resumes, email signatures, and social media pages,” the program website states. “Badges illustrate to others the competencies learned in a course.”
Course organizers did not respond to Campus Reform’s requests for comment.
Colorado State previously made headlines for advising students to avoid gendered emojis and to use yellow emojis when speaking to “diverse audiences.”
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @celinedryan
