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Nov 27, 2023 7 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Colleges often reward job applicants for their “contributions to DEI.” Records I acquired show exactly how that worked for many departments at Ohio State.

For example, "Dr. [redacted] also identifies as 'a first generation, fat, queer scholar of color.'"

A quick thread. Image
These are official recruitment reports—submitted to the college’s dean.

Some departments didn’t play along w/ the requirement. A few bemoaned the dearth of conservatives.

But many others highlighted boutique identity categories and rewarded the embrace of identity politics.

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One committee emphasized how important it was that the new hire shared the core value of social justice.

It then praises a candidate for calling for “painful conversations" that "address privilege, systemic inequality, microaggressions, and white fragility." Image
For a search in Physics, the committee notes that one candidate’s “awareness of some of the challenges facing URGs in higher education is partly informed through his marriage to an immigrant in Texas in the Age of Trump.” Image
Another was lauded for tackling "DEI issues" that included "representation of refugees, gender issues, news framing of white supremacy and the alt-right movement, and the MeToo movement.”

These DEI credentials were "an important factor" in the decision to offer an interview.
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Much of this suggests viewpoint discrimination, if not racial discrimination. It's amazing what they put down on paper. It seems like administrators applied ample pressure.

Read the full documents at @NASorg. We'll be posting more tomorrow.

nas.org/blogs/article/…
And read my full piece on the documents in @WSJopinion.

Inside Ohio State’s DEI Factory
I obtained 800 pages of ‘Diversity Faculty Recruitment Reports.’ Here’s what I found.

wsj.com/articles/insid…

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More from @WholeMarsBlog

Apr 13
Whenever you see a bizarre trend in academia, it’s worth asking whether its homegrown or funded from outside. I recently wrote about how the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has worked hard to make “trans studies" a legitimate academic field.

Here are some of Mellon's grants 🧵
The “Black, Indigenous, & Trans of Color Histories Lab” received $460,000 from Mellon in 2024. The “lab” recently hosted a symposium titled “Trans Joy, Pleasure, Freedom.” Its keynote address was delivered by a Rutgers doctoral student & self-described “p*rn archivist.” Image
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Notably, the “lab” includes several Mellon grantees. Co-lead Joshua Reason was a Mellon undergrad & dissertation fellow. Alejandrina Medina, another co-lead, received a Mellon-funded “Trans Studies” fellowship—as did the event’s keynote speaker. Image
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Read 10 tweets
Feb 20
NEW: The Mellon Foundation doesn’t just fund research; it helps distribute jobs. In doing so, it blurs the lines between charitable patronage and a different sort: the patronage of a political machine. Image
Mellon is the country’s largest funder of humanities by a mile. In its giving, it focuses aggressively on creating career opportunities for scholars.

Mellon money follows—and sometimes ramrods—these scholars through every career chokepoint. Image
This can virtually guarantee a scholar’s career. To see how it works, consider Kaneesha Parsard, who is now professor at University of Chicago. Image
Read 15 tweets
Feb 12
DOCUMENTS: In 2018, the $7.7 billion-endowed Mellon Foundation announced that social justice would be its overriding priority. For academia, the consequences have been huge.

Through FOIA, I’ve acquired dozens of proposals for Mellon-funded projects. Here are a few ⬇️🧵 Image
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"Humanizing CRT," a $500k project at University of Illinois Chicago, seeks to "integrate... Critical Race Theory in the undergraduate curriculum."

The proposal describes a class module titled "Critical Legal Rhetoric meets English, Classical Studies, and Philosophy" (see ⬇️). Image
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"Race in the Global Past through Native Lenses,: a $1 million project at UCLA, seeks to "counter the lack of Native epistemes in academic disciplines."

It does this in part by employing "tribal critical race theory." Image
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Read 6 tweets
Feb 9
NEW: At San Diego State University, an intern training program teaches students how to challenge the “colonizer logic of work”—thanks to funds from the Mellon Foundation.

Through a records request, I acquired the grant proposal. It's possibly the worst internship prep ever. 🧵 Image
The project's proposal lays out a simple rationale:

➡️Ethnic, women's, and gender studies students are seen as “unwilling or uncapable” of participating in the “hegemonic workforce.”

➡️This “deficit model” means the students end up underemployed. Image
The project’s solution: help students secure internships and then teach them to “resist” this “deficit model.” Specifically, by teaching them to resist the “colonizer logic of work,” “question specialization,” and retain “allyship.”

(see ⬇️⬇️) Image
Read 6 tweets
Dec 18, 2025
The remarkable thing about discrimination in higher ed: so much of it was documented. Approved in official records. Talked about in emails. All subject to FOIA.

Like this email, where a University of New Mexico professor just says: "I don't want to hire white men for sure." Image
Here's a search committee report from Ohio State saying: "We decided as a committee that diversity was just as important as perceived merit as we made our selection." Image
Here's an report from the University of Washington which concluded that its psychology department just blatantly discriminated by re-ranking finalists so the first choice wouldn't be a white woman. Image
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Read 10 tweets
Nov 11, 2025
NEW: During one hiring cycle at Ohio State, 60% of new arts and humanities faculty jobs fell in the “DEI” category, according to emails I obtained.

This was after OSU announced it would hire “100 underrepresented and BIPOC hires in all fields of scholarship.”

🧵on my latest. Image
In 2021, Ohio State’s then-president Kristina Johnson announced an initiative to hire 50 scholars focused on “social equity” and 100 “underrepresented and BIPOC” hires in all disciplines.

Documents I’ve acquired, reported in @CityJournal, shed light on how that played out. Image
@CityJournal The documents reveal how administrators were keeping tabs on the hiring spree.

In November 2022, an OSU diversity dean said over email that she wanted to meet with the finalists for a DEI-focused faculty job: professor of “indigenous knowledges.” Image
Read 18 tweets

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