DEI drive at some colleges can lead to dishonesty by job applicants
The MIT Media Lab, in Cambridge, Mass.
— Photo by Madcoverboy
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
The right wing greatly exaggerates the degree of “wokeness” in U.S. higher education, but there’s no doubt that the anxious, hyper-self-conscious drive to achieve “diversity, equity and inclusion’’ has gotten out of control at some institutions. The Washington Post gave a couple of examples in a recent editorial. They show an alarming focus on characterizing people on the basis of their ethnic, sexual and other identity and/or their (real or fabricated) views on identity rather than on individuals’ intellectual achievements and ambitions.
It cited the MIT Communication Lab, which demanded that job applicants submit a diversity statement as an “opportunity to show that you care about the inclusion of many forms of identity in academia and in your field, including but not limited to gender, race/ethnicity, age, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, and ability status,” and “it may be appropriate to acknowledge aspects of your own marginalized identity and/or your own privilege.” The Post also cited Harvard University’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, which asks applicants, “Do you seek to identify and mitigate how inequitable and colonial social systems are reinforced in the academy by attending to and adjusting the power dynamics in your courses?”
In other words, people are asked to take what are basically political stands when the emphasis in academia should presumably be to hire people on the basis of their knowledge of their specialties, their ability to teach undergraduate and graduate students, their potential to undertake important peer-reviewed research and their integrity.
Of course, the intense competition for academic jobs, especially at elite institutions, will lead some candidates to lie about their views of DEI-related matters.
Here’s some related material on this issue.
Fair or not, DEI programs, along with such unworkable programs as “reparations” to Black Americans for slavery, and referring to a person as “they’’ in order to sound “gender-neutral” are potent ammunition for Trumpers.