When Straight A's Aren’t Enough: The ‘Disposition’ Scam in Universities - Part 1
You can ace every test, pay every tuition bill, and still be denied a degree for failing to meet an ideological standard
Imagine dedicating years to training as a therapist, not to mention tuition paid, only to be told you’re unfit—not for incompetence, but for failing an ideological purity test.
When I was in counselor training, we were warned throughout the semester that living up to the ‘professional dispositions’ was far more important than our grades. In the beginning, I accepted this without much reflection, assuming the interest was simply to ensure that no trainee was impulsive enough to sleep with clients right out the gate or a sadistic psychopath. My mistake.
Jennifer Keeton, Leslie Elliot Boyce, Lauren Holt, and an unknown number of others also ran amok of counseling’s standards of belief.
In the time since I walked away, after being pressured to abandon my Buddhist practice which was labeled transphobic and an indicator of problematic concrete and legalistic thought, I’ve had a lot of time to consider by what criteria educators should be allowed to evaluate a student.
I think it’s time that we have a conversation about the parameters of what professors are empowered to evaluate.
Currently, educators have a lot of leeway in how they conduct their instruction, grading, and evaluations of students. This also gives them a tremendous amount of power, especially in university settings where pupils have paid, sometimes ungodly sums, to be told whether or not they measure up.
Not only does convention and tradition support their outsized authority, but so does the law. As I wrote in a past feature, students have little recourse if educators fail to help them learn, cancel classes, or even if they are taught bigoted nonsense instead of empirically based science as we see in therapy professions.
Not many people would pay upwards of $40,000 to maybe get a car after three or so years of effort, including the adoption of a bigoted belief system and suffering through classes where they were expected to take responsibility for all the world’s troubles or not all because of their skin color.
Yet that’s effectively what’s happening in graduate counseling programs all over the country.
The Hidden Costs of Corrupt Grading Standards
With this kind of unchecked authority, unsurprisingly, abuse of students, especially grad students, is rampant. Academia as an environment has a long-standing problem with hand-wringing and capitulating in the face of predatory behavior and poor self-control in those in positions of power. So, needless to say, year after year, nothing is done about that.
While this free-for-all all has endured a long time under the auspices of preserving academic freedom, it comes at tremendous costs. Among those hidden expenses are:
Students Pushed Out and Burdened with significant debt
Graduate students invest years and significant financial resources expecting fair evaluation, yet ideologically grading can arbitrarily force them out despite meeting academic standards. Many leave with massive debt but no degree, their career prospects destroyed. With appeals processes designed to protect institutions rather than students, those wronged have little recourse, reinforcing a system where unchecked authority dictates success.
Loss of Skilled Professionals in Critical Fields
When talented students are unfairly removed from their programs, communities lose professionals who could contribute to fields like mental health, education, and science. Instead of fulfilling their potential, these individuals end up underemployed, their expertise wasted. This loss slows innovation, leaves classrooms without strong educators, and deprives society of much-needed skilled workers—all because of ideological gatekeeping.
Erosion of democratic values, freedoms, and human rights.
Democracy relies on meritocracy, but when academic success is tied to ideological conformity rather than ability, education becomes a tool of control rather than enlightenment. Universities once upheld intellectual freedom, but evaluation based on adopting new beliefs conditions students to accept indoctrination and suppress dissent. This mindset carries into workplaces and government, weakening free speech, critical thinking, and the ability to challenge authority.
Corrosion of Respect and Integrity
Even when not explicitly taught, education shapes values. When students see program success is based on kowtowing to Social Justice ideology, they learn that power, not integrity, determines success. Those who experience these injustices often perpetuate them, normalizing corruption in academia and beyond. Instead of fostering ethical leadership, universities risk producing professionals who accept or exploit institutionalized unfairness.
Lost Trust in Academia, institutions, and Authority.
Perhaps the most far-reaching consequence of grading ‘dispositions’ is the erosion of trust in higher education itself. When universities prioritize ideology over fairness, public trust in academia crumbles. This skepticism spreads to government, corporations, and other institutions, fueling societal disillusionment. As faith in higher education erodes, fewer pursue advanced degrees, shrinking the pool of qualified professionals in vital fields. This cycle of declining trust and integrity weakens the very institutions meant to safeguard truth and progress.
In the case of Critical Social Justice standards in counseling, the public at large is not just losing out on the best and brightest who were willing to take a stand against a bigoted ideology.
Society is also burdened by the indoctrinated graduates, now let loose to evaluate clients for their contribution to white supremacy or stereotype black and brown people as marginalized and therefore incompetent. Thus exacerbating national issues with mental health and fanning the few remaining cinders of bigotry back into full-blown hostility.
So, this unchecked power to judge students on ideological grounds isn’t just an academic issue—it’s a societal crisis with far-reaching consequences.
How does this play out in counselor training, a field—once supposedly dedicated to evidence-based practice and ethical neutrality—now a proving ground for ideological purity?
The answer lies in the very materials used to train students. In Part 2, I’ll take you inside my textbook study, exposing how the foundations of modern counseling education have been rewritten to enforce a new orthodoxy—one that is increasingly focused on building Social Justice warriors and casting out those standing up for mental health.
Further Reading
State Laws Ignored: Counseling Accreditation and How to Demand Reform NOW!
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About
Diogenes in Exile began after I returned to grad school to pursue a Clinical Mental Health Counseling master’s degree at the University of Tennessee. What I encountered, however, was a program deeply entrenched in Critical Theories ideology. During my time there, I experienced significant resistance, particularly for my Buddhist practice, which was labeled as invalidating to other identities. After careful reflection, I chose to leave the program, believing the curriculum being taught would ultimately harm clients and lead to unethical practices in the field.
Since then, I’ve dedicated myself to investigating, writing, and speaking out about the troubling direction of psychology, higher education, and other institutions that seem to have lost their way. When I’m not working on these issues, you’ll find me in the garden, creating art, walking my dog, or guiding my kids toward adulthood.
You can also find my work at Minding the Campus