A top n university has come under fire for the second time in a week over its ‘woke’ requirements to pass a law class.
Macquarie University students studying Age and the Law under course organiser Holly Doel-Mackaway spoke out this week after being asked to perform a heartfelt Welcome to Country and a ‘privilege walk’ to pass the module.
In an exercise intended to teach law students about social and economic power, class participants were randomly assigned personalities ranging from ‘poor children with diseases to CEOs of large companies’, as reported by The n.
The students were asked to step forward when they felt a statement – for example, ‘I eat three meals a day’ – applied to their character.
Those who were assigned ‘privileged positions’ managed to cross the classroom while the ‘oppressed people stayed behind’.
‘We were then made to feel bad for having these positions. The convener told those of us with jobs or positions of power that we had achieved our positions by “stepping on the shoulders of others”,’ the anonymous student said.
The same class also taught students that childhood is a ‘social construct’ and ‘children should not be viewed as mini humans with mini human rights, rather they should be equal to adults’.
The student claimed Age and the Law ‘is not the only subject at Macquarie that has been completely hijacked by this mentality’.
‘They just seem very detached from real-world examples and more just on this political ideology that we have to agree with or we don’t get good marks,’ they said.
‘Unfortunately, at Macquarie, I feel pressured to express an opinion that I don’t truly believe in because I am afraid of the consequences of saying otherwise.’
It comes after The n reported Age and the Law attendees could fail an exam if they didn’t begin it with a heartfelt Welcome to Country.
The requirement is part of Macquarie University’s ‘law reform campaign’ oral exam, which counts for 30 per cent of the final mark in the course.
The exam rules said a student would fail if they didn’t present an Acknowledgement or Welcome to Country or ‘did so in a way that was inappropriate or did not comply with the instructions’, The n reported.
To get a high distinction mark, a student’s Acknowledgement of Country would be ‘a brief, thoughtful, exceptionally well-written, culturally respectful acknowledgement of country or welcome to country at the beginning of the presentation’.
Indigenous Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price slammed the exam as ‘indoctrination’.
Senator Nampijinpa Price said ‘mandating that students participate in what is arguably a reinvention of culture in order to attain a tertiary qualification is an indictment on our education system’.
The NT senator added that it showed universities were ‘more interested in indoctrination than genuine education’.
‘The whole concept of welcome to country is a reinvention of culture,’ Senator Nampijinpa Price said.
‘The fact that it is being imposed upon university students in their education institutions, especially when it’s being implanted into courses that actually don’t have anything to do with Indigenous culture or history or anything like that; this is pure indoctrination. It’s not education.’
Indigenous businessman Warren Mundine said what Macquarie University is doing is ‘indoctrination’.
Mr Mundine, who spearheaded the No campaign in the failed Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum, said he was ‘flabbergasted’ by the requirements.
‘What has that got to do with the actual course?’ he said.
In a statement Macquarie University said: ‘An Acknowledgment of, or Welcome to Country is a requirement of this assessment because it is relevant both to this specific task and to the overall learning outcomes of the unit, Age and the Law.
‘This unit addresses Indigenous young people and their relationship with the legal system in .’
The spokesperson added that ‘Age and the Law comprises three assessments.
‘This is the only assessment in this unit that requires an Acknowledgment of, or Welcome to country,’ they said.
‘An Acknowledgment of, or Welcome to country is not a requirement of all assessment tasks at the university, nor is this a requirement of all assessment within the Macquarie Law School.’
Daily Mail has contacted Macquarie University and Ms Doel-Mackaway.