Philippe Meister Dr.

Kelly Sulzbach ENG 355 - Critical Theory Independent Critical Essay Domestic-ish beliefs on Diversity Deconstructed The University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse Department of Residence Lifes mission is presented on their Our Mission webpage in two different statements. The first is the Mission Statement which announces the departments mission. The second is a Diversity Statement which is a reactionary statement on the departments stance on the concepts of diversity and inclusivity on campus. The department does not heavily publicize the mission statement because it taken as a given, most of their publicity is generated on more specific topics. The department has begun to distribute their diversity statement in concert with the university wide Inclusivity and Diversity initiatives. Diversity statements are posted on the departments website, posted in the lobby of every residence hall, and used in various other small publications and interactions. This text is something that is used within the department for structuring thought. It is also publicized in the residence hall convey a message to students about the type of atmosphere residence life promotes within the halls. The functions of this statementstructuring and diversity promotion are productive effects generated through this rhetoric. Scholars have produced evidence that suggests diversity statements produce meaningful cultural messages; Margaret Williams at Purdue University is the first that comes to mind. She designed a study to test an organizations attractiveness based on a brochure that was either designed for only the company, or designed for the company and had an emphasis on diversity. She found that, participants in the managing diversity condition rated the organization significantly more positively than did those in the control condition. There were also significant main effects for race and gender that accounted for more variance in the ratings of organizational attractiveness than did the managing diversity manipulation (Williams) Since these texts are sites of interpretation and cultural production, and since these texts are dispersed throughout campus, the messages in these statements are becoming more present on campus and deserve critical attention prior to the impending increase in visibility. This paper will provide a brief summary of Deconstructive and Marxist theoretical perspectives and then analyze the mission statements through these perspectives in order to create a critical interpretation of how the texts apply power through the term diversity; the critical interpretation aims to show how the truth-value of the

Meister-2 first statement and the dispersion of power in the second statement re-affirm the ruling ideas that diverse perspectives must exist exterior to, rather than belong within, the dominant ideology. Karl Marxs school of thought focuses on the material relations within a society and how those relations are the basis of power. A main tenant in his analysis of cultural power is that consciousness can never be anything else than conscious existence, and the existence of man is their actual life process (Marx, 656). The way Marx constitutes the individual is through the individual production. Marx asserts that people are the product of their productive activities, and the people who own the material own the means of production, therefore, the people who own no material are subject to the ideas of the producers (Marx, 656). Marx believes that the revolutionary class, the class that does not own the means of production but who aim to gain control, will only distribute power insomuch as they become the ruling class themselves. The revolutionary class rises because their interests are initially indistinguishable from the common interest, but as the revolutionary class becomes powerful, their ideas become decreasingly representative of the common interest. Marx understands class rule to recur indefinitely while classes exist. Marx says, This whole semblance, that the rule of a certain class is only the rule of certain ideas, comes to a natural end, of course, as soon as class rule in general ceases to be the form in which society is organized, that is to say, as soon as it is no longer necessary to represent a particular interest as general or general interest as ruling (657). Deconstructive analysis reveals ambiguity and unexplainable relationships within the meaning of a text. Deconstruction operates on a non-normative view of language. In popular thought, words are typically understood to represent something in place of that thing being present, like when a person uses the word dog to invoke the concept of a dog when one is not physically present. Deconstruction differentiates itself from that view through the term differance, differance describes words as necessarily and essentially inscribed in a chain or system, within which it refers to another and to other concepts, by the systematic play of differences. Such a play, then --differance-- is no longer simply a concept, but the possibility of conceptuality, of the conceptual system and process in general (Derrida, 286). In other words, a word functions as a word in a system of language only in reference to the words it is not; furthermore, words do not symbolize external realities; rather, words are formed by, and function as, a mental process that partitions a users experience.

Meister-3 These theories have been chosen to explore how the diversity statements, and their increasing visibility on campus, function as an allegory for diversity to students who are becoming enculturated into the unique cultures of the UW-L residence halls. An allegory is a symbolism device where the meaning of a greater, often abstract concept is conveyed with the aid of a more corporeal object or idea (Literary-Devices). Diversity statements allegorize a department-supported concept of diversity by communicating the goals, ideals, and actions under the label diversity. While the literate statements may provide a culturally acceptable declaration of what we do; a more in depth analysis of the departments message of what we believe is significant as students interpret the statements and form conceptions of diversity. The messages created by the department are interpreted by the audience; one aspect of interpreting the messages of the statements is to define the departments social voice. The social voice the department creates is characterized by the Mission Statement. A powerful social voice is formed through truth-valued-existence by citing culturally legitimate values and ideals. This is done first by an appeal to a higher authority and second by citing cultural values such as citizenship and responsibility. First, the department appeals to a higher authority by writing the first sentence of their mission with ambiguity as to who the author is. The opening sentence reads, The University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Residence Life Program is an integral component of the University's educational mission (UW-L Dept. of Residence Life). Initially the reader expects the department itself to have written the statement, but the author is obscured, and the ambiguity in the first sentence suggests that a higher power acknowledges the department as a necessity to UW-L. As we see, the department does not claim a singular voice; rather it is hedging itself under the established power structure of the education system. This authorial voice is necessary for the department to make the upcoming truth claims about itself in the statements second sentence. The departments own truth value is established in the second sentence when the department partitions a space for themselves within the system of ruling ideas. The department first references the materials of their service, and then talks about the values they support. The second sentence of the mission statement reads,

Meister-4 We provide reasonably priced and well-maintained living and learning environments which are designed to foster learning, community, personal growth, responsibility, respect, leadership and citizenship (UW-L Dept. of Residence Life). The statement does not present these values as the mission of the department; rather, the statement connects these values to the university in its entirety. Because these concepts have a cultural truth value, the department's reference to those values become aphorisms grounded in the universitys higher power. Aphorism is a concise statement that is made in a matter of fact tone to state a principle or an opinion that is generally understood to be a universal truth (Literary-Devices). Learning, community, personal growth, responsibility, respect, leadership, and citizenship all function as aphorisms that assert truth-claim-benefits of a well developed education/leadership program in the residence life department. The established truth, both in the departments place in education and in its actions shown through aphorisms, create a perspective of a department which functions with sublime value to the university. This sublime quality in the department is capitalized upon to distribute power through and among all of its designated actors. In the statements the departments name is used to signify all of the workers under one label. The UW-L Residence Life Program functions as a metonym for all of the actions of the workers in the department. In more direct language, UW-L Residence Life Department is used instead of referencing the people who structure and enforce the services, spaces and environment imposed on the UW-L students within the residence halls. Marx says, The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas: ie., the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force (656). In this case the actions of the workers within the department are referred to by a label that abstracts the work of the individual workers. Replacing individual actors with the name of the department isolated from its action controls the rhetorical presentation of authority both in their workers and in their exercise of authority. The statements assert that all of the workers in the department are structured by these concepts and that the department asserts the truth in teaching these concepts. When the department is used to signify the actions within it, the power is held within the department, but if the department spoke of its workers through their actions, the departments monopoly of control over resources would fail to hold truth-value. Without a symbolic department, this linguistic transfer of

Meister-5 power from workers to department would not abstract authoritative ideologies and create a department full of truth-value workers. The incorporation of this element forms a stronghold on the legitimate actors within Residence Life spaces, services, and environments. The established truths in the mission statement undermine the meaning of the diversity statement. Through a deconstructive lens, The elements of signification function not by virtue of the compact force of their cores by the network of oppositions that distinguish them and relate them to one another (Derrida, 285). The most immediate elements of signification in this text are the mission statement and the diversity statement which are written distinct and separate from one another. The department chooses not to complicate the truths in the mission statement. If the two statements were written as one statement, the truths of responsibility, respect, leadership, citizenship become complicated, imperfect cultural values that themselves, in definition, contradict the institutions of diversity and inclusivity. For example: How does the departments leadership claim change if all of their workers must conform to the values of the department? And, how does our definition of citizenship apply differently to U.S and non-native students? The creation of two independent statements juxtaposes them against each other, this creates a noticeable contrast between the cultural truth claim of the first and the cultural complexity of in the second. This analysis does not deconstruct the previously mentioned values citizenship, responsibility, ... because in the space of this paper I am not concerned with the construction of the values themselves, but rather, my main concern is with their truth-value presentation. The diversity statement isolates the audience into individual readers by addressing the audience rather than stating truths. When the author directly addresses the reader it establishes a relationship where the reader feels they are being coalesced to. For example, the beginning of the second sentence the diversity statement reads, This means that we are dedicated and the beginning of the third sentence reads We understand that learning to live in a residence hall (UW-L Dept. of Residence Life). These addresses to a general audience, unlike the mission statements truth statements, are responding to concerns or beliefs that a general audience is understood to hold. This phrasing changes the author/audience relationship and creates a tension between itself and those who hold the beliefs

Meister-6 that are determined to be diverse. Marx may say that this individualizing of the subjects critique is necessary to create classes and for the department to dominate constructive power and name sites of possible power. Marx says, The class making a revolution appears from the very start, if only because it is opposed to a class, not as a class but as the representative of the whole of society; it appears as the whole mass of society confronting the one ruling class. It can do this because, to start with, its interest really is more connected to the common interest of all other non-ruling classes (Marx, 657). The individually addressed, or isolated, reader feels that their own interests are singular rather than part of a social body that holds shared and diverse interests. The individualizing of the reader in the diversity statement is a power grab on behalf of ruling ideas that are threatened by diversity. The statement isolates the reader, but the reader accepts his/her isolation because the author anthropomorphizes the department to retain a trusting relationship with the reader. Anthropomorphism likens an object to human-ness and essentially makes the reader able to relate their previous human experiences to the object. The diversity statement does this in the first sentence, by creating a correlation relationship between the program and the emotions students feel. The diversity statement reads, The Residence Life Program is committed to creating living learning environments that help all students feel welcome and included. This means that we are dedicated to fostering (UW-L Dept. of Residence Life). In this statement we see the program caring and acting on behalf of students which softens the readers relationship to the program. About this, Marx may say that the humanizing of the department shows us how the ruling ideas are embodied within the power structure under the guise of the ideas of an anthropomorphized residence life department. He says, If now in considering the course of history we detach the ideas of the ruling class from the ruling class itself and attribute to them an independent existence, if we confine ourselves to that these or those ideas were dominant at a given time without bothering ourselves about the conditions of production and the producers of those ideas during the dominance of the bourgeoisie the concepts freedom, equality, etc. [we] will necessarily come up against the phenomenon that increasingly abstract ideas hold sway, ie.e., ideas which increasingly take the form of universality (Marx, 657). This isolated reader is led to disregard that fact that the values of the mission statement are created by somebody. In the moment the department touts its ability to create welcoming environments, the department is responding to, and supporting, the dominant material ideologies of our culture. And, as

Meister-7 the department specifies the non-conforming parts of our culture as diverse, it further inscribes the cultural truth-values by juxtaposing the truth-values against the other diverse entities. The rest of the diversity statement is created with abstract references, but unlike the mission statement that makes truth claims for itself, the diversity statement abstracts meaning away from the department to shed responsibility. The first sentence reads, The Residence Life program is committed to creating living learning environments that help all students feel welcomed and included (UW-L Dept. of Residence Life), this sentence amplifies the vague relationship between the living learning environments and students feeling feel welcomed and included. The statement appears to assert a diversity value because it rhetorically evokes popular connotations of welcomed and included to use mainstream understanding to appear committed to being inclusive. This doesnt commit the department to any action because the living learning environments in this statement are culturally assumed to make the students feel welcomed and included. A general cultural interpretation would conclude that the following idea, that help all students feel welcome and included, is assumed to be a part of the program and this detail does not specifically state how the department will foster diversity; rather, it seems to do the opposite and claim that the department will augment itself in order to impress itself upon as many people as it can. The only direct references in the statement are the allusions to other campus departments. The allusions read, We work in concert with various departments across the campus to enhance compliance to these values. Some of these offices are: (UW-L Dept. of Residence Life). In this instance, alluding to the other departments shifts responsibility and accountability of diversity to the named departments. This allows Residence Life to become one entity within groups advocating for diversity rather than identifying itself as a program that will incorporate diverse perspectives into the program. The statement disperses diversity to other departments and this follows a Marxist view of subordinate power. Marx says, For each new class which puts itself in the place of the ruling one before it, is compelled, merely in order to carry through its aim, to represent its interest as the common interest of all the members of society (657).

Meister-8 The reader easily accepts this shift of the concept of diversity to established diversity organizations because the ruling ideology asserts that structured power must be under the control of one group. The ruling truths label this cultural complexity as something that cannot exist in a ruling organization. Rather, the ruling truths form negative associations to diversity through the ruling ideas and this ensures that these topics will remain relatively isolated areas of social interest. These departments of diversity no longer represent a common social interest; rather, their [potential] collective revolution has become pre-specialized by the label of diversity. The diversity departments have gone through the process that Marx outlines: revolutionary groups appear to be the general interest because they are closer to the general interest than the ruling class is, then as they gain power they lose their general appeal and become specialized. Because these departments for diversity are specialized, they do not present a common social interest and therefore have less political influence in the mainstream because they are perceived and forced to represent only a specialized interest. Therefore we see power ideologies allow diverse interests to cultivate under the restricting label of diversity because it is a way to control and disenfranchise potential social power. The Deconstructive and Marxist analysis of diversity statements reveals troublesome associations for the distribution of power through the labels of diversity on campus. When we answer the question what do these statements do? we may construct a culturally acceptable answer because an institutional focus on diversity may increase the visibility of minority beliefs. But, if we try to answer the questions what do these statements believe? we may realize that the structuring agency of these statements have distributed power and representation in an inequitable fashion because the term diversity becomes representative of things that exist necessarily outside of our ruling ideology, rather than representative of elements within our ruling ideologies that we should incorporate and acknowledge as part of us.

Meister-9 Works Cited Derrida, Jaques. Differance. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin, Michael Ryan. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 278-298. Print. Department of Residence Life. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, 11 October 2012. Web. 1 December 2013. Literary-Devices. Literary-Devices, 2010. Web. 1 December 2013. Marx, Karl. The German Ideology. Leterary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin, Michael Ryan. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004. 653-658. Print. Williams, Margaret. The Effect of a Managing Diversity Policy on Organizational Attractiveness . Group & Organizational Attractiveness. 19 September 1994. 295-308. Web.