Aaron Sibarium Profile picture
Nov 8, 2021 16 tweets 4 min read Read on X
New research finds that 1/5th of academic jobs require DEI statements; that the statements are significantly more common at elite schools than non-elite ones; and that jobs in STEM are just as likely as jobs in the social sciences to require DEI statements.freebeacon.com/campus/study-d…
The last finding surprised James Paul, one of the study's co-authors. He'd hypothesized that the more empirical a field, the less likely it would be to use "soft" criteria when evaluating applicants. But when he actually ran the data, that hypothesis collapsed.
"The most surprising finding of the paper is that these requirements are not just limited to the softer humanities," Paul said. "I would have expected these statements to be less common in math and engineering, but they're not."
DEI statements have grown more routine in recent years, especially on the West Coast. Between 2018 and 2019, for example, most schools in the University of California system mandated DEI statements for all faculty applicants. academic-senate.berkeley.edu/sites/default/…
This swift march has not gone unopposed. City Journal‘s Heather Mac Donald has blasted DEI requirements as an assault on meritocracy, quipping that Einstein’s groundbreaking research had nothing to do with diversity, equity, or inclusion. latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/…
Paul agreed, saying it was "concerning" that DEI has begun to "take precedence over merit." The study notes that at UC Berkeley, more than 76 percent of applicants to a life sciences post were eliminated on the basis of their DEI statements. ofew.berkeley.edu/sites/default/…
Others, like the American Enterprise Institute's Max Eden, see the requirements as ideological litmus tests, loyalty oaths to a "woke" worldview in which equity matters more than education and free thought.
"Universities are conditioning employment on fealty to an ideology that is inherently hostile to the university's traditional mission," @maxeden99 said.
"If colleges started asking prospective faculty about their patriotism or commitment to American ideals, you can bet there would be a mass outcry about academic freedom."

Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, echoed Eden's concern.
"The idea that someone looked at the current crop of professors and said, ‘There's just not enough political homogeneity' is remarkable to me," @glukianoff told the Free Beacon. "I fear that higher education has become a conformity engine."
The study suggests that DEI litmus tests are not aberrational. They are now common at both public and private universities—especially the elite ones, which the study found were 18 percent more likely than non-elite schools to require diversity statements.
Paul speculated that the market power of such schools lets them be extra ideological. If elite universities get more job applicants, he reasoned, they may "be able to prioritize this ideology without sacrificing anything in quality."
The 19% stat is likely a low-ball estimate. For one thing, the study only used the terms "diverse" or "diversity" to identify jobs that require DEI statements; postings that eschewed that language in favor of "equity" or "antiracism" weren't counted under the coding scheme.
For another, the study only looked at job postings, not job applications. If some applications required diversity statements that weren't advertised in public postings, the results could be a significant undercount.
Komi German, a research fellow at FIRE, argued that the proliferation of DEI statements could ultimately backfire, constraining not just ideological but racial diversity.
"Hiring committees may emphasize the political and ideological components of DEI statements to make them more palatable to progressive white scholars," German said. "After all, being white won't count against them if they can pledge strongly enough their allegiance to DEI."

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Aaron Sibarium

Aaron Sibarium Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @aaronsibarium

Apr 1
NEW: NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab laid off 900 workers due to budget cuts. But it refuses to fire its top DEI officer, Neela Rajendra, who has said that "extreme deadlines" are an obstacle to "inclusion."

The lab changed her title but kept many of her duties the same.🧵 Image
Rajendra said on a 2022 podcast that that "some people might be left behind" by the "super fast pace" of tight deadlines. That comment came two years before a pair of astronauts were stranded on the International Space Station for nine months due to a faulty propulsion system.
In 2024, the lab laid off 900 workers—or 13% of its staff—amid budget cuts due to delays on its Mars Sample Return program.

Rajendra survived the cull, however. And even after Trump's executive order banning DEI in the federal government, the lab kept her around.
Read 13 tweets
Mar 17
NEW: Trump's Equal Employment Opportunity Commision (EEOC) sent letters to 20 white shoe law firms today requesting information about their diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, arguing that many of the firms' practices appear to violate civil rights law.🧵 Image
The letters ask the firms to provide detailed information about their diversity fellowship programs—some of which explicitly limit eligibility based on race—and to explain how the firms achieved rapid changes in their demographic makeup without recourse to race discrimination.
Recipients of the EEOC's letters include Latham & Watkins, WilmerHale, Skadden Arps, Goodwin Procter, Hogan Lovells, Kirkland & Ellis, and White & Case. Two of the firms, Perkins Coie and Morrison & Foerster, were sued over their minority-only fellowships in 2023.
Read 12 tweets
Mar 17
NEW: A gender studies professor who says "white empiricism" undermines Einstein’s theory of relativity sits on a top advisory panel at the Energy Department.

Meet Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, who claims string theory "failed to succeed" because the field has too many white men.🧵 Image
Prescod-Weinstein, a professor of physics and gender studies at the University of New Hampshire, was appointed to the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP) under the Biden administration in 2024.
The panel advises the DOE on research and funding priorities for particle physics, giving it significant say over which projects receive federal support.

Prescod-Weinstein will remain on HEPAP until 2027 unless the Trump administration takes action to remove her.
Read 17 tweets
Mar 13
SCOOP: Illinois runs a scholarship program for graduate students that explicitly excludes white applicants, a move lawyers say is unconstitutional and could jeopardize the federal funding of more than two dozen participating universities, including Northwestern and UChicago.🧵
The program, Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois (DFI), was established by state law in 2004 and provides financial aid to "members of traditionally underrepresented minority groups" pursuing masters or doctoral degrees.
Students apply to the program through their universities, each of which has an "institutional representative" who helps "verify ... that applicants for the fellowship meet all eligibility criteria."
Read 15 tweets
Mar 5
NEW: The American Sociological Association is suing to block the Trump administration's Dear Colleague letter on DEI.

But guess what? ASA has a fellowship that openly discriminates against white applicants—something that would have been illegal even without the new guidance.🧵 Image
With help from Democracy Forward, a legal nonprofit whose board is chaired by disgraced Dem superlawyer Marc Elias, ASA sued to block the enforcement of the Dear Colleague letter, which argues a wide range of DEI initiatives—not just overt racial preferences—violate Title VI.
The complaint described a parade of horribles that would allegedly result from the guidance. The list of prohibited practices is so broad, according to the ASA, that even honoring Martin Luther King Jr. could jeopardize a school’s federal funding.
Read 11 tweets
Feb 25
NEW: Scores of Iowa public school districts now have affirmative action plans that encourage race-based hiring and other diversity initiatives, potentially imperiling their federal funding under new guidance issued by the Trump administration.🧵 Image
Image
Image
Image
The plans, which are required by state law, include hiring goals for minority teachers, courses on "equity in mathematics," and bonuses for teachers who specialize in "culturally responsive leadership."
Some set percentage targets for "BIPOC representation" or explicitly say that race is "considered when making employment decisions." Image
Read 28 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(