A Campus Profile in Courage: Professor Jeffrey Poelvoorde.One story from the front lines of the ideological war on America’s campuses
Photos: Len Weinstein
In mid-August, my radar screen for stories of “woke” campuses began picking up reports about a professor at Converse College, in Spartanburg, South Carolina, who had run afoul of his administration by refusing to participate in mandatory anti-bias training.
What particularly piqued my curiosity was a description of Professor Jeffrey Poelvoorde as Converse College’s only “Orthodox Jewish faculty member.” When I saw that, I knew I wanted to speak to him.
Why was Professor Poelvoorde being forced to attend anti-bias training? And why did he refuse?
After the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody, Converse College president Krista L. Newkirk issued a statement attributing Floyd’s death to America’s “systemic racism.” She pledged that her institution — a private women’s liberal arts college with some 1,000 students in a small Southern city — would dedicate itself to purging its own systemic racism, including instituting mandatory anti-bias training for all faculty.
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