For Austin Peay students, cultural competency goes beyond critical race theory | Opinion

Re: "Lawmaker: Why a textbook at Austin Peay worries me about critical race theory," by Rep. Scott Cepicky, March 8.

State Rep. Scott Cepicky  insinuated that students of the counseling program at Austin Peay State University are being brainwashed into adhering to a critical race theory “agenda” by “far-left” faculty and staff.

As a student of that program, I am disappointed to see such incorrect information about my program and profession. The information provided by Rep. Cepicky is neither accurate nor representative of my experience in this program.

Our curriculum or faculty has never asked us to adhere to certain mindsets, ideologies, or obtain a level of  “wokeness” in order to provide appropriate care. The content in question comprises only 14 pages of the 500-page textbook “Counseling the Culturally Diverse”; less than 0.05% of the entire text. That’s a lot of missing context.

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Students are not shamed. Here’s what really happens.

The American Counseling Association states “counseling is a professional relationship that empowers diverse individuals, families, and groups to accomplish mental health, wellness, education, and career goals.”

Further, our accreditation body and the ACA Code of Ethics requires students obtain the competencies necessary to provide care to any person no matter their race, ethnicity, gender, or religion. In this program I have learned these skills by connecting with my own cultural identity and engaging with people and experiences that serve to widen my worldview.

Cepicky’s statement that students are shamed, indicted of our character, or forced to verbally comply with CRT is wildly misguided; it is the antithesis of both the program and the field of counseling.

In actuality, I have been invited to better understand my peers' points of view and encouraged to understand perspectives that lie outside my own lived experience as a possible reason for impacting a person’s mental well-being, with race being one of many components.

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We do not have to adhere to one view

It is no secret that those who call Tennessee home come from many different walks of life. Those in my cohort alone are Black, White, Latinx, LGBTQIA2+, pastors’ wives, Christian, atheist, immigrants, single mothers, athletes, veterans, military spouses, disabled, and able-bodied individuals.

We are a diverse group of individuals who have been trained to provide mental health care for all citizens of Tennessee. Students of the college have never been required to verbally agree with or support CRT as a part of an assignment or for a grade.

To suggest that is what’s happening at APSU is disheartening at best and dangerous at worst, as it perpetuates the stigma of receiving help to this state’s citizens on the false assumption that sitting with a counselor will make you adhere to a certain political agenda or force you to deny parts of your lived experience.

This is the exact opposite of what students in my program are taught to do.

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My base of knowledge has grown at APSU

For information from one student who didn’t bother reading past the first chapter to be blanketed across my academic curriculum is bewildering.

What was omitted was the heart of what it means to be a APSU Gov and a culturally competent counselor: While there may be differences in how we move through our lives because of our race, the idea of culture is far more than our skin color.

Yes, that is one component. It is also the way we were raised, the resources we had access to growing up, the strength of our education, the way we worship, where our ancestors came from, who we love, and how we came to be the people we are today.

When we can sit with students, colleagues, and community members and see them as whole, capable, unique people, we are all better off.

This is an important component of what I have learned at APSU, and I cannot imagine my academic experience without this knowledge.

Roxanne R. Hallisey, B.S., is currently earning her master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling at Austin Peay State University while serving as a graduate teaching assistant and conducting research on ethical decision making.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: At Austin Peay,, cultural competency goes beyond critical race theory