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John Sailer

@JohnDSailer

Aug 5

Last week, the DOJ released guidance for federal funding recipients.

The memo—which clarifies how nondiscrimination law should be applied—is a huge development for universities. A lot of their worst policies are looking more fragile than ever. 🧵

2/ The DOJ specifically highlights the use of racial proxies. Hiring on the basis of "cultural competence" or using diversity statements is unlawful if the purpose is to give an advantage to specific racial groups.

This is an even bigger deal than it might seem.

3/ Universities often take on large-scale hiring programs that select for an emphasis on "equity."

Inevitably the programs recruit ideologues. More importantly, this criteria is justified because it's seen as a way to favor minorities. It's right there in their own documents ⬇️

Read 6 tweets

John Sailer

@JohnDSailer

Jul 29

NEW: George Mason University's largest college required every faculty hiring committee to carefully document how it prioritized diversity.

Through FOIA, I’ve acquired dozens of these reports. The records are eye opening…🧵

For several years, these inclusive search plans were required for hiring in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

One committee openly stated that it discussed “diversity”—which included “demographic diversity”—as a part of candidates' strengths/weaknesses.

Meanwhile two other search committees explained how they had crafted their job advertisements to signal their desire to “make a diversity hire.”

Read 7 tweets

John Sailer

@JohnDSailer

Jul 7

NEW: Universities across the U.S. have embraced diversity checkpoints in faculty hiring.

Administrators monitor the demographics of applicants throughout the process, with consequences for searches that don't "pass muster"—according to a trove of records I've obtained.

🧵

In one email—acquired via a records request—UT Austin professor Carma Gorman asked diversity-dean John Yancey whether her search committee’s pool was sufficiently diverse to advance.

The dean said yes, but if the numbers dropped “then things don’t look good anymore.”

At the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), the Human Resources director would send weekly “diversity of the pool reports,” which would continue up to the selection of finalists.

If the makeup was deemed “insufficient,” more administrators would get involved.

Read 14 tweets

John Sailer

@JohnDSailer

Jun 30

DOCUMENTS: At Cornell, search committees that were hiring biomedical scientists had to pass four "checkpoints" to make sure their pools were "sufficiently diverse."

"That certainly looks like a Title VII violation," one legal expert told me when discussing the program.

🧵

In 2021, Cornell received a $16 million NIH grant for the Cornell FIRST hiring program—aiming, in the proposal’s words, to "increase the number of minoritized faculty" at Cornell and beyond.

I acquired a trove of documents that show how this played out.

According to a proposal and set of progress reports, the program's leadership team screened applicants at four separate stages—the initial pool, longlist, shortlist, and finalist slate—to ensure “as diverse a pool as possible.”

Read 10 tweets

John Sailer

@JohnDSailer

Jun 2

DOCUMENTS: The University of Michigan’s “anti-racism and racial justice” cluster hire wrapped up last year—recruiting at least 20 new professors.

I’ve acquired the proposals via a record request. They show how U-M aggressively hired social justice activists.

🧵🧵🧵

For a cluster focused on the arts, a proposal declares that the new faculty will teach students to become "change agents," as art should aim to "challenge policies" which "perpetuate white supremacy."

The cluster search in "data justice" was especially aimed at recruiting scholars in critical race studies," decolonization, and racial capitalism.

Adding: "UM needs to show these new faculty that we believe that it is not the job of the oppressed to reform the oppressor..."

Read 12 tweets

John Sailer

@JohnDSailer

May 29

Trust in higher ed has crashed over a decade.

Why?

My take: because in that time, universities launched huge ideologically-charged faculty hiring schemes.

But these schemes are legally vulnerable. They came hand-in-hand with overt discrimination.

🧵

I’ve acquired hundreds of documents describing the inner workings of social justice university hiring schemes.

Just in my capacity as an investigative journalist, I’ve found dozens of examples of universities seemingly violating civil rights law—and hiring based on race.

1) “Our aim is specifically to hire a Black, Indigenous, or Latinx faculty member.”

At the University of Colorado Boulder, the Faculty Diversity Action Plan funded special faculty position, if departments could demonstrate how the role would enhance diversity.

Many of the roles created through these programs were overtly ideological, like the one for a German studies professor who examined fairy tales, folklore, and fantasy through a “critical race studies perspectives.”

When @ and I acquired the proposals, we found that many just openly stated the intention to discriminate.

— “Our commitment, should we be successful with this application, is to hire someone from the BIPOC community.”

— “This cluster hire has the goal of doubling our underrepresented faculty in the college.”

— “[This search] emphasizes hiring Black, Indigenous, Asian American, Latinx, and Pacific Islander faculty”

— “We have an urgent and qualified need for BIPOC femme/women of color faculty in an Africana Studies focus who will contribute to the social science division thematic cluster hire in racism and racial inequality.”

Read 8 tweets

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