UT Chancellor Under Fire For Campus Guidance On Inclusive Holiday Parties

Two committee chairmen in the Tennessee Senate are calling for the resignation of Jimmy Cheek, the chancellor of UT Knoxville.

The request follows the university’s diversity office issuing guidance to students and faculty, warning them against holding Christmas parties with any religious or cultural emphasis. It even discouraged secret Santa games.

This is the same UT office that drew criticism from Republican lawmakers for asking faculty to use only gender-neutral pronouns.

State Sen. Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville, and Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, have asked Cheek to resign after he told them he would personally approve any future post by the diversity office. Bell says in a statement that the effort to be inclusive has become “offensive” to many Tennesseans.

Chancellor Jimmy Cheek says in
a statement the university’s inclusion efforts “have been totally misconstrued” and that the school is “in no way trying to dismiss…the Christmas holiday.”

UT’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion has now posted clarification:

Please note that the resource as stated in the first line is a 
not a policy – it is a list of suggestions for inclusive celebrations.

We recognize that our campus community is diverse and its members observe various religions and faiths.

Our campus has numerous holiday parties and celebrations and we do not monitor activities.

We honor Christmas as one of the celebrations of the season and the birth of Jesus and the corresponding Christmas observance is one of the Christian holidays on our cultural and religious holidays calendar.

The practices are an online resource for faculty and staff to review as a means of creating a more inclusive holiday environment within their departments and administrative units.