Paycom, a $22 billion tech company, is just one of many large corporate entities to use its financial influence to try to reshape both academia and broader society to conform to such concepts. It’s a trend that worries many citizens, including those working in higher education across the country.
In a March 3, 2020 letter to the University of Oklahoma’s board of regents, Paycom CEO Chad Richison wrote that the university’s “previous diversity training efforts failed because they assured free speech protection.” He announced Paycom was yanking advertising from the school and called for OU to “put inclusion and diversity at the core for all Oklahomans, including the state’s flagship institution.”
Since then OU has mandated new—and controversial—“Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” training for all students and staff at the University of Oklahoma.
In that training, students have been told the phrase “Boomer Sooner” is steeped in racism and can represent a form of oppression, and that OU remains a place of discrimination where students may literally fear for their lives. They have been told that support for racial equality is wrongheaded and that “equity” measures that can involve different treatment for different groups based on individuals’ race and other characteristics should be embraced instead. The training also told OU staff to embrace “political correctness” in their communications.
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