Diversity statements are an imposition on academic freedom
Harvard alum Samuel Abrams (AM 07 PHD 10) writes that required diversity statements “are in conflict with the fundamental values that should govern university life: intellectual freedom and epistemic humility. They compel faculty to affirm contested views on matters of public debate or to embed specific ideological perspectives in their academic activities.”
As for institutional neutrality, he writes that “Departments or schools regularly take explicit positions on political matters such as American foreign policy towards Israel, the role of police in society or Black Lives Matter, and academics are expected to toe the line on pain of non-selection or dismissal. This is reminiscent of the McCarthy era and is the antithesis of a free market competition of ideas, which is the hallmark of our nation’s collegiate system.”
Abrams points to FIRE’s recent faculty survey, raising the alarm. “Surely no professor on the left or right could ethically and rationally support what are essentially loyalty oaths and coerced speech? And yet in a new survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), about half of almost 1,500 professors at four-year US colleges and universities expressed the view that ideological statements are a justifiable requirement for a job at a college or university, rising to 61 per cent among female faculty…”
“There is still time for faculty of all ideological persuasions to call on university administrations to reject formal diversity statements. No one should be subjected to an ideological litmus test at the expense of their academic freedom and their ability to carry out unfettered enquiry. And no one should be afraid to say so.”
[Abrams notes that his colleagues at AEI “recently found that almost a fifth of academic job postings required DEI statements.”]
Related:
Where’s the Line? On the Kalven Report, academic freedom, and the limits of institutional neutrality (City Journal, 3/2/23)
Are diversity statements a threat to academic freedom? (Economist Podcast, 2/3/23)- FAIR Advisor Jonathan Haidt and other perspectives (Dean of Berkeley Law Erwin Chemerinsky, Human Rights Watch/HKS fellow Kenneth Roth)
The University’s New Loyalty Oath (WSJ, 12/19/19)
Against Diversity Statements (HMS’s former dean, Jeffrey Flier, Chronicle, 1/3/19)
