🏛️ The Multicultural Hub That Dare Not Speak Its Name: UA's Orwellian Answer to Indigenous Existence
When your new university overlords hail from a state whiter than Wonder Bread and think "diversity" means having both regular AND decaf at the faculty lounge
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
👨🎓🏫 Imagine your school decides to close the art 🎨, music 🎵, and library 📚 rooms to save money, but continues paying someone $517,000 just to organize meetings.
This is similar to what's happening at the University of Arizona. They're closing special spaces where Native American, Latino, Black, and LGBTQ+ students used to meet, study together, and feel at home. Instead, they want students to use a generic, unnamed room.
Dr. Ted Downing, an 82-year-old professor, is speaking up about this decision. He recalls similar past actions affecting Native American children and understands its wrongness. University leaders from Vermont, a predominantly white state, may not grasp the need for culturally specific spaces.
Dr. Downing is fighting because he believes all students deserve to feel welcome and supported at their school. 🤝🏫✨
🗝️ Takeaways
🏛️ The University of Arizona employs 103 vice presidents while shuttering cultural centers for marginalized students under the guise of creating an unnamed "multicultural hub."
🎯 A single "summit conductor" earns $517,000 annually, while Native American, Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, and disabled students lose dedicated support spaces
📊 UA's new leadership comes from the University of Vermont, which ranked dead last (500th out of 500) in student experience despite being 94.5% white
🪶 Over 20 Arizona tribes objected to university decisions, but administrators appointed someone Native faculty consider culturally incompetent to oversee Native Affairs
⚖️ Dr. Ted Downing, an 82-year-old anthropologist and former legislator, draws direct parallels between current policies and historical boarding school assimilation tactics
🔥 The university ranks 241st out of 500 in student experience, while nearly half its budget comes from student tuition and fees, funding administrative bloat
When Academic Colonizers Come Home to Roost: Ted Downing's Urgent Warning About Cultural Erasure at the U of A
La lucha sigue in the shadow of the Santa Catalinas, where the desert winds carry whispers of resistance and the ghosts of boarding schools past.
Today, we examine the prescient words of Dr. Ted Downing, whose recent guest opinion in the Arizona Daily Star cuts through academic doublespeak like a machete through mesquite. At 82 years old, this anthropologist and former Arizona legislator refuses to watch history repeat itself on his own campus.
In his powerful piece "Forced Assimilation Has No Place in Arizona," Downing exposes how University of Arizona administrators are systematically dismantling cultural centers under the euphemistic banner of creating a "multicultural hub."
But as any student of history knows, when institutions start talking about efficiency and unity, marginalized communities should start watching their backs.
The Boarding School Specter Returns: "¿No que no?"
Downing's analysis pierces straight to the institutional heart of darkness: this isn't about streamlining services—it's about cultural genocide with a corporate PowerPoint presentation.
As he writes in his op-ed, "From slaveholders who banned African languages and broke up families, to federal Indian boarding schools that punished Native languages and beliefs, these systems aimed not just to educate, but to erase."
The parallels aren't subtle.
Federal Indian boarding schools operated under the motto "Kill the Indian, Save the Man"—a philosophy of forced assimilation designed to strip Indigenous children of their languages, traditions, and identities. Now, UA administrators are effectively saying, "Kill the Cultural Center, Save the Budget Line."
In his explosive June 16th interview on the Buckmaster Show, Dr. Downing connected these dots with devastating clarity: "There was a time when we moved all the Native Americans' children into boarding schools... This is an assimilation policy. That's exactly what's happening from the Trump administration."
The elder professor understands what many younger observers miss: this isn't policy wonkery—it's cultural violence. When elderly tribal members who survived actual boarding schools recognize the same patterns in today's university policies, we're witnessing institutional memory as a warning system.
The Vermont Colonization Project: When 94.5% White Meets Tohono O'odham Territory
Here's where the story gets particularly galling.
The university's new president and provost arrived from Vermont—a state that's 94.5% Anglo and about as culturally diverse as a mayonnaise sandwich convention. Their previous institution, the University of Vermont, ranked dead last among 500 colleges in student experience according to the Wall Street Journal.
Let that marinate: they took the worst-performing university in America and decided to remake Arizona's flagship institution in its image.
As Downing noted in his Daily Star piece: "Before remaking this campus in the homogeneous image of their last, they should first take the time to understand the one they now call home."
But understanding requires humility, and humility doesn't mesh well with the corporate-speak mentality that treats students like customers and culture like an inefficient commodity.
When you're dealing with administrators who think summit conductor affairs deserves a $517,000 salary (yes, that's a real position at UA), expecting cultural sensitivity becomes an exercise in wishful thinking.
The Numbers Don't Lie: Administrative Bloat Meets Cultural Erasure
Speaking of that $517,000 "summit conductor"—Dr. Downing revealed on the Buckmaster Show that the University of Arizona now employs 103 vice presidents.
Not department heads, not deans—vice presidents. Each drawing salaries that would make Fortune 500 executives weep with envy.
Meanwhile, the university is shuttering cultural centers where Native American, Black, Hispanic, LGBTQ+, and disabled students find community, support, and belonging. Apparently, paying one administrator over half a million dollars to conduct summits is essential, but providing spaces for marginalized students to connect is somehow extravagant.
The math is simple: 103 vice presidents > countless students who need cultural support spaces.
This isn't just administrative incompetence—it's a fundamental misunderstanding of what universities should be. As Downing writes, "College is about more than lectures and degrees. It's where students discover who they are, build networks, and forge lifelong bonds."
The Multicultural Hub That Dare Not Speak Its Name
The proposed replacement for these vital cultural centers?
Some nebulous "multicultural center" that—get this—doesn't even have a name yet. Dr. Downing's suggested moniker captures the Orwellian nature perfectly: "the Assimilation Spoke Shop—serving all identities equally, provided they rotate in the right direction."
¡Órale! Nothing says inclusive education like forcing diverse communities into a one-size-fits-all cultural blender.
This hub model fundamentally misunderstands how marginalized communities build resilience and belonging. When you're a first-generation college student from the barrio, finding other students who share your language, your struggles, and your dreams isn't segregation—it's survival.
When you're a Native student navigating an institution built on stolen land, connecting with other Indigenous voices isn't isolation—it's reclamation.
But administrators trained in Vermont's 94.5% white environment apparently believe diversity means everyone sitting in the same room pretending their experiences are identical.
Resistance at 82: "Try to Put a Muzzle on This Old Horse"
What makes Dr. Downing's stand particularly powerful is his institutional memory and moral courage. This isn't some outside agitator or partisan hack—this is a 56-year veteran of the UA faculty who has watched these patterns before and refuses to normalize them again.
When the university tried to restrict his political speech, his response embodied the resistance spirit we need: "Well, I'll tell you, at 82 years old, try to put a muzzle on this old horse. I can't run the Preakness, but I'll tell you one thing. I can still speak with my First Amendment right."
¡Eso sí está cabrón! An 82-year-old professor showing more backbone than entire administrative departments.
His willingness to risk his position to call out cultural violence demonstrates that resistance isn't just about street protests—it's about institutional insiders refusing to collaborate with institutional racism. It's about tenure-track professors using their job security to protect students who don't have those same protections.
The Native Faculty Fight Back: "Twenty Tribes Have Spoken"
The university's assault on Indigenous voices runs deeper than the cultural center consolidation. As Dr. Downing revealed on the Buckmaster Show, over 20 Arizona tribes voiced strong opposition to the firing of a NASA director, but the university "has decided, it appears at this point, to essentially ignore those voices and to go its own way on Native Affairs."
Even more egregiously, the administration appointed someone to oversee Native Affairs who Native American faculty believe lacks cultural competency. When asked for her removal, the university essentially told sovereign tribal nations to sit down and shut up.
Let that sink in: an institution that claims to value diversity appointed someone to manage Native Affairs who the actual Native faculty considers culturally illiterate. It's like hiring someone who's never seen water to run your swimming program, except the stakes are Indigenous students' academic success and cultural survival.
This isn't bureaucratic bungling—it's colonial arrogance. The same mentality that gave us "Kill the Indian, Save the Man" now manifests as "Ignore the Tribes, Save the Administrator."
The Broader Trump-Era Context: Boarding Schools and Bears Ears
Dr. Downing's warnings about university assimilation policies don't exist in a vacuum. They're part of the broader Trump administration assault on Indigenous rights, public lands, and cultural diversity. As documented in his Buckmaster Show interview, this administration is simultaneously:
Eliminating national monuments like Bears Ears that hold sacred significance for tribal nations
Cutting $900 million from the National Park Service, potentially closing 350 of 433 park units
Firing Indigenous federal employees en masse, including young Native park rangers, on Valentine's Day
Dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion programs across federal agencies
The university's cultural center consolidation fits perfectly into this broader pattern of cultural erasure and institutional violence. When federal policy openly targets Indigenous sovereignty and cultural preservation, university administrators feel emboldened to implement their own versions of assimilationist thinking.
Student Voices in the Storm: What This Means for La Raza
For students navigating this institutional hostility, the impacts are immediate and personal.
Cultural centers aren't just meeting spaces—they're lifelines. They're where first-generation college students learn to navigate financial aid systems their parents never encountered. They're where LGBTQ+ students find acceptance when their families reject them. They're where Native students maintain connections to ceremony and tradition while pursuing Western academic degrees.
The proposed "multicultural hub" fundamentally misunderstands these dynamics.
Different communities have different needs, different histories, different relationships to the institution itself. A Chicana student's experience of campus racism differs qualitatively from a Black student's encounters with discrimination, which differs from a Native student's navigation of an institution built on stolen tribal land.
Forcing these communities into a single space under a single administrator isn't efficiency—it's erasure. It's the academic equivalent of saying "all lives matter" when Black Lives Matter activists demand recognition of specific systemic violence.
The Financial Farce: Tuition Money Funds Administrative Empire
Here's the kicker that should enrage every student and parent: nearly half of UA's budget comes from tuition and fees. Your student loan debt and your family's sacrifices are funding this administrative bloat and cultural destruction.
While students struggle with crushing debt that follows them into their 40s, the university employs 103 vice presidents who draw six-figure salaries. Meanwhile, cultural centers are being consolidated for "efficiency," while summit conductors earn over $500,000 annually.
Dr. Downing nailed the financial reality: "With high school graduate numbers declining and costs soaring, a university's financial survival depends on offering a meaningful student experience. Nearly half of the University of Arizona's budget comes from tuition and fees. We need to be more student-friendly, not less."
Instead, administrators are creating an environment that ranks 241st out of 500 in student experience while eliminating the very spaces that help marginalized students succeed.
Historical Echoes: From Carlisle to Tucson
The boarding school comparison isn't hyperbole—it's historical analysis.
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School and other assimilationist institutions didn't just attack individual Native children; they systematically dismantled Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and relating to each other.
Today's cultural center consolidation operates from the same philosophical foundation: the belief that diversity is a problem to be managed rather than a strength to be celebrated. This assumption suggests that different communities should abandon their specific cultural practices and identities in favor of a generic "multicultural" experience.
Pero ¿sabes qué? Identity survived Carlisle, and it will survive this latest assimilationist assault. The question is how much damage these administrators will inflict before common sense and human decency prevail.
The Vermont Problem: When Homogeneity Meets Diversity
The fact that UA's new leadership comes from Vermont—a state with the demographics of a country club—isn't coincidental. It's symptomatic of how higher education perpetuates white supremacy through seemingly neutral administrative decisions.
When you've spent your career in institutions that are 94.5% white, you develop blind spots about how marginalized communities navigate predominantly white spaces. You start believing that your lack of exposure to diversity constitutes expertise in managing it.
The University of Vermont's dead-last ranking in student experience isn't just a statistic—it's a warning. It suggests an institutional culture that prioritizes administrative convenience over student needs, bureaucratic efficiency over human connection.
Now these administrators want to impose that same culture on an institution that serves large populations of Latino, Native American, and other marginalized students.
It's like asking someone who's only ever cooked in a microwave to run a gourmet restaurant.
Resistance Strategies: ¡La Lucha Continúa!
Dr. Downing's courage in speaking truth to power provides a roadmap for resistance:
Document Everything: Follow Dr. Downing's example of naming names, citing specific salaries, and exposing administrative excess. Transparency is the enemy of institutional racism.
Connect Historical Dots: Help people understand that this isn't just "budget restructuring"—it's the latest iteration of centuries-old assimilationist policies. Historical context transforms individual grievances into systemic analysis.
Amplify Marginalized Voices: When Native faculty speak, listen. When tribal nations object, pay attention. The people most impacted by these policies understand their implications better than any outside observer.
Use Institutional Memory: Senior faculty like Dr. Downing have seen these patterns before. Their warnings aren't nostalgia—they're early detection systems for institutional violence.
Refuse to Normalize: Don't let administrators gaslight you into believing that cultural erasure is somehow progressive. Forced assimilation is forced assimilation, regardless of the PowerPoint presentation.
The Path Forward: Esperanza in the Desert
Despite institutional betrayal and administrative violence, reasons for hope persist. Dr. Downing's willingness to risk his position demonstrates that moral courage exists within the system. Student organizing around these issues shows that young people understand what is at stake.
The 332 million Americans who visited national parks last year represent a constituency too large to ignore forever. The over 20 Arizona tribes who voiced opposition to university policies represent sovereign governments that won't be silenced indefinitely.
Most importantly, cultural identity has survived far worse assaults than administrative consolidation. Somos más fuertes de lo que piensan.
The struggle for cultural preservation and institutional justice continues because it must continue. Because the alternative—a homogenized, corporatized educational system that treats diversity as a problem to solve rather than a strength to celebrate—represents a future none of us can accept.
In this desert of institutional decay, we must be the monsoon that brings renewal. In this landscape of administrative arrogance, we must plant semillas de esperanza that grow into movements for justice.
La lucha sigue, and so do we.
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Join the conversation in the comments below. We're stronger when we strategize together:
How can we build broader coalitions to protect cultural centers and Indigenous voices within educational institutions while also addressing the broader patterns of administrative bloat and corporate university models?
What role should tribal sovereignty and Indigenous epistemologies play in reshaping how universities approach diversity, inclusion, and cultural programming, especially on lands with long Indigenous histories?
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