The College Fix

The ‘People of Color’ appreciation lunch has been replaced with a meal open to all

Gustavus Adolphus College appears to have canceled its “People of Color & International Faculty and Staff Appreciation Lunch” after a February 11 article from The College Fix.

An email sent to the university community invited any racial minority or international faculty to attend, excluding white people by default.

But now the Lutheran college will offer a Black History Month lunch open to all, according to an email reviewed by The Fix.

Gustavus Adolphus College communications director JJ Akin did not respond to an email that asked for confirmation the first event had been canceled.

“The Office of Equity and Inclusion would like to invite all faculty and staff to our Black History Month appreciation lunch,” a message sent to the university community said. The lunch is at the same time and in the same room as the previously scheduled appreciation lunch.

The event will celebrate and “recognize and honor the contributions, achievements, and legacy of African Americans.”

Professor Mark Perry at the University of Michigan Flint also filed a federal complaint against the college for its original segregated event.

Gustavus Adolphus College “is legally required to enforce Title VI as a condition of receiving federal financial assistance, and in fact regularly certifies to the Department of Education that it is actively enforcing all federal civil rights laws including Title IX and Title VI,” Perry wrote in his complaint to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The Fix reviewed a copy of the complaint.

“In other words, White faculty and staff are illegally excluded from this discriminatory, illegal, segregated event on the basis of color, race, and national origin,” Perry wrote.

MORE: University of Tennessee cancels campus CRT center after Fix article

IMAGE: Mark Perry

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