The top public university in Minnesota currently offers a DEI-based (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) certificate for prices ranging from $900 to $1,575.
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (UMN) Equity Certificate Hosted Online (ECHO) aims to assist “learners develop tools necessary for advancing equity and diversity in all aspects of their personal and professional lives.”
The program, available year round, is free of charge for all staff, faculty, and students at the five UMN system campuses. However, those outside the system will need to pay for enrollment, including $900 for the “Self-Supporting Individual Bundle Rate,” $1,350 for the “Non-Profit/Government/Higher Ed Inst Bundle Rate,” or $1,575 for a “Business or Corporate Entity Bundle Rate.”
The university does offer full and partial scholarships, but also notes that one’s “generosity supports the work of the Office for Equity and Diversity and the Education Program facilitation team.”
A total of 10 courses are required to obtain the certificate, including four mandatory classes: “My Role in Equity and Diversity Work,” “Addressing Implicit Bias and Microaggressions,” “Navigating Challenging Conversations,” and “Removing Barriers and Creating Access.”
One of the electives that can count toward the ECHO is an online course on “Sizeism & the Fat Liberation Movement.”
According to the description, “this course will center around fat liberation and will also provide opportunity for group and self-reflection around internalized fatphobia/sizeism.”
The class will also “review the continuum of fat liberation movements” and “conclude with sharing U.S. legal and non-legal protections for people experiencing size bias.” A course description assures readers that “this workshop is open to individuals of all sizes.”
Another elective concerning “Race, Racism, and White Supremacy” will “explore contemporary dynamics that perpetuate racism and white supremacy, including dominant group patterns and multiple modalities of racial harm.”
Similarly, the “Xenophobia & Marginalization of International Community Members” course seeks to help enrollees “understand our complicit role and active anti racist actions we can take.”
Other ECHO elective classes offered include “Ableism and Disability Justice,” “Understanding and Addressing Gender-Based Oppression,” “Gender, Gender Identity, and Sexuality,” and “Religious and Spiritual Identities.”
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Minnesota Twin Cities for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
Author
