With an abysmal graduation rate of just below 2o percent as recently as 2016, one would think the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS) in Juneau would prioritize the number of students who earn a bachelor’s degree.

Instead, it appears that UAS, a public university funded by taxpayers, is more concerned with perpetuating a narrative of oppression — at least as evidenced by its upcoming third annual Power and Privilege Symposium.

Close

Such gatherings are all but cliché on university campuses today, as college professors on the far Left dominate subjects like history and the humanities, sorely outnumbering their conservative counterparts — as indicated by a 2016 Klein study.

The conference at UAS, slated for Tuesday, November 6, is “designed to give members” of the school and local communities “an opportunity to come together and engage in difficult, thoughtful, and honest conversation about the ways social hierarchies and identities manifest themselves in our communities,” the university’s website reads.

“Discussions include those about race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, religion, body size, ability, mental illness, class, and their intersectionalities,” the description continues.

What’s more, “Most UAS Juneau classes will be canceled to allow students and faculty the opportunity to attend and/or present at the Symposium,” the website notes.

So far, the agenda is not yet finalized, apparently.

LifeZette reached out to UAS for details, but did not hear back by the time of publication. 

Still, if the past has any bearing on the future, attendees can expect more of the same privilege-gaining-awareness instruction instead of a day of solid, lasting education.

“We gather here on the traditional lands of the Áak’w Kwáan Tlingit to recognize and work to deconstruct the systems of power and privilege that shape our society on all levels,” said last year’s event program. “The students here at UAS come from so many diverse backgrounds, and this symposium is an opportunity for us to understand our differences and how they affect our lives.”

Who do you think would win the Presidency?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from LifeZette, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

There’s more.

“The discussions we are having today are more important now than they have ever been before,” the program said. “The power disparity between the most privileged in our society and those who are left behind and forgotten has become even more visible and egregious over the past several decades.”

Related: College Is Now Paying for Its ‘Adversarial Position’ Against a Male Student

It added, “Since the first Power and Privilege Symposium, the productive and respectful discussion of our society’s imbalance has been eclipsed by intolerance and demagoguery in our national dialogue.”

With so much focus on oppression and victimization, meritocracy on our college campuses barely stands a chance.

This does not bode well for the small percentage of students, after they’ve been coddled with politically correct workshops, who will graduate from UAS. The real world outside the college boundaries requires perseverance and grit.

Elizabeth Economou is a former CNBC staff writer and adjunct professor. Follow her on Twitter.