Editorial: Diversity Effort Stunt

Illinois Tech does little to address prominent social issues on campus including the gender gap. The diversity committee they have is nothing but performative activism. Since the passing of Nate Thomas, our previous chair for the community, we have heard little from Illinois Tech.

Illinois Tech has since named Mike Horan as the chair for the Community, Inclusion, and Diversity Committee, he also happens to be Vice President for Finance and Administration. He is very unqualified for the position and has little experience working on inclusion. In fact, when you look into his biography on the Illinois Tech site, there is nothing about his new position or his commitment to diversity. Seems kind of important and should be updated, but maybe that's just us.

In fact, Illinois Tech never announced him taking over Mr. Nate Thomas’s position, maybe it was not important enough to announce despite the redundant ribbon-cutting emails we received. Maybe it was a rash decision made to ensure that the committee does not fall apart, or maybe just maybe, hear me out here: Illinois Tech does not actually care about inclusion on campus.

Illinois Tech’s gender gap is concerning and should be addressed and not settled for. We should not excuse our gender gap because other STEM schools share it, instead, Illinois Tech should be pioneering efforts to combat it.

All I am saying is that even when setting up WiSTEM, SGA had voted seven to six on approving the organization. There needs to be more efforts to recognize the support minorities on campus deserve. This effort needs to be conjoint from both students and administration.

So even when students like my peers in WiSTEM work towards equal gender representation, access to resources, and support from the university, there is a backlash.

The campus community is composed of multiple factors including students, faculty, administration, and staff. There are too many unqualified and undeserving individuals in influential positions of power at this university. WiSTEM is calling for a full course investigation to be conducted by a third party outside of the university and educate or rid of these individuals.

A starting place would be to appoint a qualified individual to take over the chair of the inclusion and diversity committee.