BOULDER, Colo. ― A visiting conservative scholar at the University of Colorado says educational institutions have gone overboard trying to protect people from discrimination.
Steven Hayward said in an interview with Colorado Public Radio on March 17 that women were underrepresented in higher education for years. However, outdated opinions remain on the issue, even though much has changed, he said.
The statement came a month after Hayward published an opinion piece in the Boulder Daily Camera on Feb. 19, in which he criticized an internal university report concluding there was continuing discrimination against women on campus.
Hayward’s statements have drawn fire from student leaders and prompted the administration to distance itself from his remarks.
The report from the American Philosophical Association’s Committee on the Status of Women cited 15 complaints made to CU’s Office of Discrimination Harassment since 2007.
The committee found that female members of the philosophy department were leaving at disproportionate rates after reportedly feeling anxious, depressed and demoralized.
Hayward said the report’s conclusions were vague.
