“DEI, Redundancy, and Bullshit Jobs”

Here’s a crazy story:

A Brown U. student built a website, “Bloat at Brown,” with a database of about 3,500 university staff and emailed them, asking “what tasks you performed in the past week” and “how Brown students would be impacted if your position was eliminated.”

About 20 people replied. One told him to “f**k off.”

The school advised employees not to respond and referred the student to the disciplinary office (he hasn’t been charged with any violations yet). Then his website was hacked by someone with a Brown IP address. The website: bloat.brownspectator.com

🚨 In faculty meetings, Columbia President Armstrong is downplaying the changes promised to the Trump admin.

She “told faculty there was no mask ban.”

And she said the new vice provost to be appointed to review Middle East Studies “wouldn’t impact how the department operates.” On the mask ban:

This. Is. Incredible.

The LGBTQ center at Binghamton University hosted an Israeli trans activist via Zoom to talk about life as a trans person in Israeli society.

SJP freaked out and disrupted the event.

“No pride in genocide.”

“Your whole identity is political.” Here is the ad for the event. The fact that he served in the IDF set them off.

BREAKING: Mahmoud Khalil, a student at Columbia, has reportedly been detained by DHS and had his green card revoked.

He was a lead negotiator in the 2024 encampment at Columbia and is seen here participating in last week’s sit-in at Barnard:
A press release put out by his supporters:

Columbia’s President on the loss of $400mm in federal funding over antisemitism at the school:

She doesn’t say anything about attempting to resist.

On the contrary, she acknowledges both the government’s “legitimate concerns” and Columbia’s “failures and shortcomings.”

🧵 “The cancellation of these funds will immediately impact research and other critical functions of the University.”

They are “taking the government’s action very seriously” and “working…to address their legitimate concerns.”

Combatting antisemitism is the “number one priority.”

“…misconceptions, such as the narrative that DEI has ended.”

Harvard Business Review offers some insight into how organizations are changing how they talk about DEI rather than getting rid of it: Link: hbr.org/2025/02/the-le…

NEW: The American Economic Association is encouraging economists to leave X for BS.

A new report cites the decline of hashtag EconTwitter, harassment (especially of women, people of color, and LGBTQ scholars), and policy changes under Elon as reasons to switch.

🧵 The report lists pros and cons of social media use.

Note that one positive impact is in the past tense: “#EconTwitter was once a center of positive interaction but has declined.”

What is going on at George Mason University?

First, police found weapons and terrorist propaganda in the home of two SJP leaders.

Now, a third student at GMU, an Egyptian national, has been arrested by the FBI for allegedly planning an attack on the Israeli consulate in NYC: From this @DailySignal piece by @Gundisalvus:
dailysignal.com/2024/12/18/tro…

BREAKING: The Idaho Board of Education has passed resolutions requiring the state’s public universities to:

-Shut down DEI offices and policies.

-Commit to political neutrality.

-Protect free expression.

-Provide free expression training to faculty, students, and staff.

🧵 The DEI resolution says institutions

“shall not use personal identity characteristics in decisions affecting the employment or education of any employee or student.”

“shall not establish or maintain a central office, policy, procedure, or initiative that promotes DEl ideology.”

Why don’t more professors object to race-based discrimination in faculty hiring?

Consider the story of 79-year-old UC Riverside Professor Emeritus Perry Link.

He objected to “boosting” a candidate based on race and was subjected to a nearly two-year inquisition.

🧵 In response to the attempt to boost the candidate, he wrote,

“[Candidate X] is lively and charming—and yes, Black, which is great—but I can’t say that I found his sophistication and experience up to the level of our top candidates.”

He also expressed concern that his “colleagues would…make the applicant’s race their ‘overriding criterion.’”

NEW: Students at Sarah Lawrence College have published a strategy guide in which they say they were ANSWERING THE CALL OF HAMAS when they recently occupied a building and set up an encampment on campus.

🧵
They call themselves “fighters in the Student Intifada” and declare that “the third stage of the Student Intifada at SLC has just begun.”

BREAKING: The University of Michigan will stop using DEI statements in faculty hiring and promotion.

The decision was made by Provost Laurie McCauley and announced this morning.

This is a great day for @UMich and American higher education!

🧵 A faculty committee recommended that the university “Discourage Solicitation of Standalone Diversity Statements” but didn’t want to give up screening faculty for their DEI commitments…

🧵 Colleges have committed themselves to partisan political values, and now they “have no compelling justification for their existence to give when the opposing political party comes into power. We have nothing to say to the half of America who doesn’t share our politics.” Colleges expected to be able to advance their political agendas without external opposition, but that is changing:

NEW: The University System of Georgia has:

-Banned DEI statements in hiring and admissions.

-Added free expression training to student orientation.

-Declared political neutrality.

-Required the teaching of the Declaration, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and more.

🧵 These policies were passed by the System’s Board of Regents last week.

Here are the new policies against DEI statements in admissions and hiring (changes highlighted):

BREAKING: The University of Michigan student government has impeached its anti-Israel president and vice-president for:

-incitement to violence;

-cyber theft; and,

-dereliction of duty.

The students are taking their government back.

🧵 The impeachment comes after students outmaneuvered the activists running their government and restored funding for student activities:

https://twitter.com/sfmcguire79/status/1844355246686077188

NEW: What could the new Trump administration mean for Columbia University?

A nonpartisan concerned group, @StandColumbia, has calculated that it could cost the university a catastrophic $3.5 billion per year — over half its annual budget.

How?

🧵 First, the government could stop awarding grants to Columbia.

The group calculates this could cost the university $50-200 million per year in the short-term and add up to 1.329 billion per year in the long-term.

“Writing ‘f*ck you Boeing’ is free speech and fully protected; preventing Boeing from discussing jobs with students is not. Calling someone a ‘kapo’ is offensive, but protected speech; breaking through a police line is not.”

Cornell President Kotlikoff explains free speech:

🧵 Referring to the disciplinary measures taken against students who disrupted a career fair, a
student asked him:

“Why are you punishing students for free speech?”

He explained the difference protected speech and illegitimate violations of the rights of others.

“At first I was stunned. I found it hard to believe that a book…could be blacklisted simply because of the…word ‘Israel’ on its cover.”

“But here we are. It seems that no Jewish author, no one remotely connected to Judaism, is safe from this kind of exclusion.”

—@BHL “Curbing this hate begins by going to the source. That’s why I will soon visit North American university campuses most impacted by this disgraceful rhetoric and violence and plead not only for Israel, but for the defense of free speech.”

🧵Harvard Librarian Martha Whitehead on libraries as sanctuaries:

“Libraries are cherished as the soul of our colleges and universities.”

“Outside the library walls, information and viewpoints constantly rush towards [students]. Inside, they pursue their own lines of inquiry.” “Opposing perspectives routinely confront each other in our collections.”

“Libraries are places where everyone should feel both welcome and able to focus on their own pursuits.”

NEW: The task force on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias at UCLA surveyed 428 Jewish faculty, students, and staff.

The results are devastating.

“Two-thirds of respondents reported that antisemitism is a problem or a serious problem at UCLA and three-quarters reported that anti-Israeli bias is a problem or serious problem.”

“Three-quarters of respondents felt that antisemitism is taken less seriously than other forms of hate and discrimination at UCLA.”

“There were over 100 reports of individuals experiencing a physical attack or physical threat.”

”Nearly 40% of respondents (N=394), noted that they experienced antisemitic discrimination at UCLA.”

”Almost half (49%) of the undergraduate student respondents reported that teaching assistants engaged in behaviors that included offensive comments, verbal attacks, or discrimination, and 76% reported that their peers engaged in these behaviors.”

“One-third of respondents indicated that they had made an informal or formal complaint to UCLA because of mistreatment or discrimination based on their Jewish or Israeli identity.” Some comments on the encampment:

“The rote incantations of a state religion.”

This is an incredible exposé of academic DEI.

It confirms so many things critics of DEI have been saying for years.

Better late than never, NYT!

Some highlights:

🧵 The most common attitude toward DEI at UMich, even among those committed to diversity and social justice, is “wary disdain.”

People are sick of it.