Thanks for this Dan, very informative.
Some hope perhaps?
"No to Authoritarianism: 7 Million Rally Across U.S. in Historic No Kings Day Protests: An estimated 7 million people took part in No Kings rallies Saturday to protest President Trump’s authoritarian policies"
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/10/20/no_kings
Fenton
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Dr. Fenton Litwiller (they/them/theirs)
President, Canadian Association for Leisure Studies (CALS)
Associate Professor
Recreation Management and Community Development | University of Manitoba
112 Frank Kennedy Centre | Winnipeg MB | R3T 2N2
204.474.8412
fenton.litwiller@umanitoba.camailto:fentonl@umanitoba.ca
[signature_2837124687]
The University of Manitoba campuses are located on original lands of Anishinaabeg, Ininewuk, Anisininewuk, Dakota Oyate and Denesuline, and on the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. UM respects the Treaties that were made on these territories, acknowledges the harms and mistakes of the past and present, and dedicates itself to move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of Reconciliation and collaboration.
From: Dan Henhawk Daniel.Henhawk@umanitoba.ca Date: Friday, October 17, 2025 at 11:48 AM To: Fenton Litwiller Fenton.Litwiller@umanitoba.ca, CALS Board cals-board-2023-2026@lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: Re: Agenda for CALS board meeting Oct 17 10am to noon central
Email from Jay Coakley
Colleagues, I apologize for a relatively long email, but not for its content. As all of us in the United States know, there have been continuing federal investigations leading to crackdowns on schools committed to DEI policies and programs. These investigations have quickly moved into classrooms and the content of syllabi and textbooks. This has occurred despite academic freedom and the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that guarantees freedom of speech. I have tracked these investigations over the past few months and wondered how they are impacting the members of NASSS, ISSA, and scholars in disciplines related to sociology. This tracking became personal last week when McGraw-Hill sent an email to Jeffrey Montez de Oca and me with instructions for revisions to our just-published 2025 revision of Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies (SiS). The email called attention to broadly defined DEI content in the textbook. We were told that specific references to “the words ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’ should be deleted and replaced with alternatives such as, ‘Cultural Considerations,’ ‘Social Factors,’ or ‘Individual Differences’.” Chapter 7, “Gender and Sports: Is Equity Possible” was used as an example of the changes that should be made throughout the entire book. Here is what the email identified as sections and wording that must be revised in chapter 7:
* Progress Toward Gender Equity * Is Equity Possible? * Gender and Sports: Is Equity Possible? * Gender and Sports: Is Equity Possible? * Progress Toward Gender Equity * Barriers to Equity * Gender Equity, Sexuality, and Gender Identity * Strategies to Achieve Equity * Boys and Men Benefit from Gender Equity * Summary: Is Equity Possible? * Is Equity Possible? * Barriers to Equity * Gender Equity, Sexuality, and Gender Identity * Strategies to Achieve Equity * Summary: Is Equity Possible? * What Counts as Equity?
Each of these section titles requires changes so that gender “equity” is not an explicit focus. How this is done, I have no idea. This general mandate applies to all SiS chapters, including those on race and ethnicity, social class, and other chapters in which inequalities and discrimination explicitly related to gender, race, LGBTQI+, transgender, etc., are discussed. A possible substitution, according to recent information on research, writing, and courses in sociology, would be to refer to “certain” or “other” populations rather than identifying them. Background: Academic book publishers have, in recent years, included explicit commitments to DEI on their websites. One of the inferences of their commitment to DEI was that their publications would, where relevant, recognize the essential relevance of DEI issues in their content. This now makes them a target for the Trump administration. As publishers fear retribution, they are beginning to ask authors to comply with requests to change the vocabulary as DEI issues are discussed, even in connection with reported data and findings in the research they cite. Of course, books that will be challenged include discussions of gender, race, ethnicity, social class, and other topics that discusses or cites research dealing with DEI by using the terms diversity, equity, inclusion, discrimination with a reference to a specific population, inclusion as a desired process, etc. This, as of last week, is the case for Sports in Society: Issues and Controversies and the new policies of McGraw-Hill Education. I am checking on changes being made by other publishers. The Future: When will this fascist anti-DEI approach be mandated for course syllabi and the vocabulary used in classroom lectures and discussions? Will Jeff and I be instructed to modify the content in over 100 “recommended readings” we have authored for the online SiS instructor’s manual? Will we be asked to delete all references that highlight DEI issues in the hundreds of essay and discussion questions in the manual, on over 800 slides and in hundreds of M-C and T-F questions? Will we also be asked to delete the 28 Sports in Society Podcasts we’ve done that cover issues and controversies highlighted in SiS and others that are emerging in real time? The expert guests (two per podcast) with whom we discussed a series of contentious issues related to sports in society certainly talked about their research and conclusions about DEI issues. Will McGraw-Hill delete the reference to those podcasts in the instructor’s manual, or delete all of them because they discuss critical questions about sports in society? What about the podcasts to come? We continue to record them as we talk with our expert guests. By the way, if you are interested in these podcasts, the abstracts and links for each are in the attached document. The podcasts are free to all (this is NOT a self-serving ad for SiS). For those who have adopted SiS in their courses, the podcasts serve as provocative discussion material, and for assignments when a class is missed. Our goal for all students in sociology of sport courses offered across multiple and diverse programs and departments is to provide students with content that complements assigned course readings and helps them develop an informed perspective about sports as social phenomena. Finally, the challenges each of us in the United States now face in our research, publishing, and teaching should be a keynote discussion topic at the upcoming NASSS conference. With concern, Jay Coakley
Note: Jeff did not participate in writing this email. He did, however, create the attached podcast list and the abstracts for each of the discussions we recorded. Addendum: The words that federal investigators search for in publications and syllabi include the following: accessible, activism, advocacy, affirming care, anti-racism, assigned at birth, bias, biologically female or male, BIPOC, Black, climate crisis, cultural differences, disabilities, diverse backgrounds, enhancing DEI, environmental quality, equal opportunity, equity, female gender based violence, Gulf of Mexico, hate speech, immigrants, indigenous community, inequality, injustice, LGBTQ, minorities, Native American, non-binary, oppression, people + uterus, prejudice, race and ethnicity, racial justice, segregation, social justice, they/them, transgender, tribal, victim, and women (but not men). Therefore, if you write and discuss the wonder of American exceptionalism in glowing terms, and the accomplishments of white men and how DEI policies and programs disadvantage them, you will be home free. Another depressing but informative article to read: Randazzo, Sara, Caitlin Ostroff, & Shane Shifflett. 2025. Scientists strip ‘diversity’ language from research to keep federal grants. Wall Street Journal (August 23): The Words Scientists Are Changing to Scrub Diversity from Research Grants - WSJhttps://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.wsj.com/health/scientists-are-removing-dei-language-to-keep-federal-grants-d092833b__;!!NCZxaNi9jForCP_SxBKJCA!QXKlh01SDf4C8nJw5uts_qB1Ht-l28PxxeS9nwIcPPsdRfiSKHBAErOmRCKDD6rB0XibdLkVfv04cMC7JLc$ [Yes, I read the WSJ daily—it keeps me aware of why looking over my shoulder when I talk about the sociology of sport isn’t due to paranoia. And the WSJ covers content relevant in sport management; coverage is seldom initiated in response to critical questions, but it helps me to ask them.]
Jay Coakley, PhD Professor Emeritus Sociology Department University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
________________________________ From: Fenton Litwiller Fenton.Litwiller@umanitoba.ca Sent: October 15, 2025 4:45 PM To: CALS Board cals-board-2023-2026@lists.umanitoba.ca Subject: [Cals-board-2023-2026] Agenda for CALS board meeting Oct 17 10am to noon central
Hi all,
Please find attached the agenda for our upcoming board meeting (minutes from our June 2025 meeting to follow).
Thank you,
Fenton
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Dr. Fenton Litwiller (they/them/theirs)
President, Canadian Association for Leisure Studies (CALS)
Associate Professor
Recreation Management and Community Development | University of Manitoba
112 Frank Kennedy Centre | Winnipeg MB | R3T 2N2
204.474.8412
fenton.litwiller@umanitoba.camailto:fentonl@umanitoba.ca
[signature_2837124687]
The University of Manitoba campuses are located on original lands of Anishinaabeg, Ininewuk, Anisininewuk, Dakota Oyate and Denesuline, and on the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. UM respects the Treaties that were made on these territories, acknowledges the harms and mistakes of the past and present, and dedicates itself to move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities in a spirit of Reconciliation and collaboration.
