Bruce Shepard, president of Western Washington University, has stirred controversy this week among conservative news organizations over statements he has made about campus diversity, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.
Campus Reform, a website that bills itself as dedicated to rooting out bias on college campuses, this week drew attention to a questionnaire on the university’s website asking “How do we make sure that in future years ‘we are not as white as we are today’?”
Conservative news organizations such as The Daily Caller, The Washington Times, and others picked up on Campus Reform’s post.
Mr. Shepard said he had previously tried to address the issue of diversity in convocation speeches. A copy of prepared remarks for a 2013 speech that are posted on the university’s website states, “Every year, I have stood here and said, ‘If Western is as white in the years ahead as it is today, we will have failed as a university.’”
In a blog post in January, Mr. Shepard explained what he had meant by those remarks, writing that his comments were “intended to be provocative.”
In an interview with the Post-Intelligencer, Mr. Shepard said his institution was responding to the state’s needs at a time when its demographics are changing. He also spoke to The Western Front, the university’s student newspaper, about his remarks and the subsequent backlash, saying, “We aren’t talking about keeping whites out. That had never ever even occurred to me, and that’s one reason I was a little bit surprised at the reactions.”
