Report: Engineering Researchers Subjected to 'Microaggressions' Workshop at Conference

Engineering researchers and faculty were reportedly subjected to an hour-long workshop on “microaggressions” in the middle of a conference on advancements in manufacturing techniques.

A conference held at Louisiana State University was reportedly interrupted by an hour-long workshop on “microaggressions,” much to the confusion of several attendees. The program was presented by Sara Hernandez, the Associate Dean for Inclusion and Student Engagement at Cornell University, and Dr. Jenna Carpenter, the Dean of Engineering at Campbell University.

“When faculty and students aren’t aware of implicit bias, they unwittingly engage in behaviors that continue the discrimination and discouragement of women and underrepresented minorities in science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines,” Carpenter told Campus Reform in an interview.

“Who all has had implicit bias, sterotypes, microinsults, microaggressions, and [T]itle IX training?” a post on an LSU forum asked. “Cause I’m at an engineering symposium in lod cook today and have been dealing with snowflakes and trigger warnings all morning. They scheduled an hour for us to learn about all this.”

“At one point they had us write a microaggression that we gave or someone gave us,” the post continued.

“When people learn that I am from Colorado, they assume I smoke weed,” wrote one user who attended the conference wrote on the forum. Others chimed in by mentioning other the common stereotypes that attendees wrote down.

Dr. Pedro Derosa, who moderated the workship, argues that social stereotypes are the main reason why women and minorities are underrepresented in the STEM fields, such as math, engineering, and computer science. “When implicit biases result in entire groups being underpaid or being subjected to higher scrutiny or standards or being excluded from opportunities altogether, we have a problem,” Derosa said.

Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about economics and higher education for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com