John Sailer Profile picture
Dec 6 3 tweets 1 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
“Every day the universities wake up and break the law.”

That's how I began my recent seminar for Stanford's Classical Liberalism Initiative.

It's what I was told when I started reporting on faculty hiring. At the time, it sounded like an exaggeration, but my reporting has basically shown that it's true—universities operate with a profound sense of impunity.
Please consider watching and sharing the seminar, which summarizes much of my work over the last year.

• • •

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

Keep Current with John Sailer

John Sailer 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 @JohnDSailer

Dec 4
Today, the University of Arizona faculty will consider adding a minor in "Emancipatory Education."

It'll cover topics such as "Indigenous methodologies," activist approaches to research, and "Critical and postmodern (and decolonial) approaches to understanding gender."

Thread Image
Potential classes to complete the minor will include:

Leadership for Social Justice

Theories of Inequality, Oppression, and Social Stratification

Whiteness and Education

Activism in Higher Education

Indigenous Statistics and Survey Research

Decolonial Thinking

and more!
Image
Image
Here are the proposed learning outcomes.

They include applying "critical, postmodern, and emancipatory concepts," developing "praxis-based" concepts for "social-justice based" interventions, and articulating the "importance of emancipatory education." Image
Read 4 tweets
Nov 28
This is an OSU search committee on its proposed finalists:

The committee was "keenly aware" of the need to hire a "visible minority," and "thus chose three Black candidates," declaring that "diversity was just as important as perceived merit as we made our selections."

🧵 Image
That’s from a search for a professor of French Studies focused on “Black France.” Throughout the documents I acquired—800 pages of diversity recruitment reports—casual allusions to racial preferences abound.

Here are some examples of the outcomes.
For a role in Medical Anthropology, 67 scholars applied, the four finalists include the only two black applicants and the only Native American applicant. (Note what counts as a "contribution to DEI.")


Image
Image
Image
Image
Read 10 tweets
Nov 27
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.

Image
Image
Image
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
Read 7 tweets
Nov 21
OSU's College of Arts and Sciences made every search committee create a diversity recruitment report.

Over the next week, I'll be releasing redacted copies of these reports—highlighting aspects that raise serious questions over academic freedom and, well, academic seriousness.
The reports show the regular use of DEI litmus tests. For prospective scientists and scholars, contributions to DEI could easily make or break a job candidate.

For a search in Synoptic Meteorology, diversity statements "were considered a crucial part of the evaluation process.”
Image
In a search for a professor of Music Theory, the report uses a key to list the reasons for not choosing candidates.

A total of four were eliminated solely because of their “Insufficient diversity statement.”


Image
Image
Image
Read 7 tweets
Nov 6
DOCUMENTS: In 2021, Utah State University launched a cluster hire, seeking scientists w/ a demonstrated commitment to “justice, equity, diversity and inclusion across disciplines.”

Via a records request, I acquired the screening tools for the searches. Here’s one for biology.
Image
Image
Notice how biologists were evaluated for their “knowledge & understanding” of the “dimensions of diversity.”

For a search in mathematical biology, candidates could receive a total of 20 points for “Teaching Efficacy,” 15 points for “Research Potential” and 15 points for “JEDI."

Image
Image
Image
For another search—in math and stats education—the “justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion” category made up 15 out of 50 total points awarded.

Image
Image
Image
Read 5 tweets
Oct 31
NEW: University of Washington violated non-discrimination policy, according to an internal UW report acquired by the National Association of Scholars.

nas.org/blogs/article/…
A UW faculty hiring committee “inappropriately considered candidates’ races when determining the order of offers,” provided “disparate opportunities for candidates based on their race,” and ultimately used race as “a substantial factor” in its hiring decision, according to the report.
Image
The report—issued by what is now the UW Civil Rights Investigation Office (CRIO)—shows how the Department of Psychology’s Diversity Advisory Committee pressured one hiring committee to re-rank finalist candidates on the basis of race.
Read 29 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 on Twitter!

:(