In an internal planning document distributed to faculty last month, Pennsylvania’s flagship law school promised to devote the entire institution to “antiracism,” from recruitment and hiring decisions to research and classroom instruction. Penn State Dickinson Law said it would “recruit, retain, teach and research according to antiracist principles” and embrace an “antiracist critical pedagogy,” according to a copy of the document obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The document, a “Strategic Plan Update” covering the next five years, also pledges to expand “employment opportunities for candidates who are underrepresented in the University and at the Law School.” It does not appear anywhere on the website for the law school, whose dean, Danielle Conway, became the president of the American Association of Law Schools this year.
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The strategic plan, which reads like something written at the height of the George Floyd protests, illustrates the persistence of left-wing identity politics at a university stewarded by Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro (D.), who appoints 9 of the 36 voting members on the board of trustees and who has pushed back on some of the ideological excesses of academia, including at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Institutional antiracism is the work of acknowledgment, knowledge acquisition and iterative historicity, and constant action to promote systemic equity,” the document reads. “Institutional Antiracism requires acknowledgment of the full history in which race and racism, oppression, and subordination shape and are shaped by law and legal architecture.”
The document could also generate legal risk by pledging, in writing, to prioritize the recruitment of “underrepresented” groups, a term the Justice Department singled out in a 2025 guidance document on “unlawful discrimination.”
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The strategic plan, which describes Dickinson Law as a “leader in antiracism,” suggests that the law school has reoriented its curriculum around activist concepts. In a section titled “Increase Access to Legal Education for All,” the plan pledges to advance “a Historical and Contextual Understanding of the Power and Promise of the U.S. Constitution to Restructure Society Along the Lines of Systemic Equity, Justice, Equality, and Fairness for All.” Other action items include “Advancing Inclusion, Equity, and Diversity” and “Prepare all colleagues to teach and learn about institutional antiracism.”
The law schools will “leverage the Penn State Dickinson Law brand and its leadership on Antiracism to attract students, staff, faculty, and administrators,” the plan reads. It will “publicize the Law School’s commitment to leading on antiracism in service to promoting the rule of law and defending the U.S. Constitution.”
The post ‘Antiracist Critical Pedagogy’: Penn State Law School’s New Strategic Plan, Devoted to ‘Antiracism,’ Raises Legal Questions appeared first on American Renaissance.
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