Professor Watchlist

Jacob S. Rugh is an Associate Professor in the College of Family, Home, & Social Sciences department at Brigham Young University (BYU).

In August of 2020, Rugh wrote a letter to BYU’s Committee on Race, Equity, and Belonging. One of his aims for writing the letter was “to amplify the voices of Black BYU students, specifically their recent declaration of grievances and letter on remembering and monuments to church, university and NAACP leaders.” 

Rugh said he has focused his BYU “citizenship efforts” to “the ongoing redesign of general education at BYU to include a new, focused diversity and inclusion requirement.” He also aims to establish “a new campus center for racial equality that would (among other tasks) spur the diversification of faculty now and enrich the pipeline of future faculty.” 

According to the letter, another priority of Rugh’s is for BYU to establish “a long-term process of institutional repentance,” on campus. 

In October of 2022, Rugh “quoted an anti-white article favorably in a tweet,” according to Campus Reform. The article, written by Perry Bacon Jr. for The Washington Post, was titled “America’s problem is White people keep backing the Republican Party.” Bacon Jr. claims that there is an alliance between white Americans and the Republican party, which he considers to be the “most important and problematic dynamic in American politics today.” (see tweet below). 

“It’s no accident that Republicans are winning the majority of White voters…result of a successful strategy. It’s not that Trumpism brought White voters as a bloc to the Republican Party—but rather that it hasn’t scared many of them off.” @perrybaconjr🎯 https://t.co/YFkwjQPVVp

— Jacob S. Rugh (@JakeRugh) October 17, 2022

Published — November 9, 2022