The Tyranny of the DEI Bureaucracy
The Editorial Board condemns university DEI offices as authoritarian, ideological enforcement bureaus. “The Stanford blowup shows how the culture of DEI, and especially its accumulation of power in the bureaucracy, has become a threat to free speech… Rather than promoting diversity, DEI officers enforce ideological conformity.”
DEI offices, the board explains, “exercise a broad writ on campus and act as speech police within the university… That power was on ugly display last week at Stanford Law School, where a mob of law students shouted down Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Kyle Duncan in a spectacle unfit for any institution of higher learning…”
“Heckling unpopular speakers is common on campus, but what makes this episode stand out is the role played by administrators.” The piece goes on to detail the role of Stanford Law School’s associate dean for DEI, Tirien Steinbach, who repeatedly asked, “Is the juice worth the squeeze,” i.e. is free speech worth the “harm” it causes.
“The tyranny of DEI has spread across far too many American institutions. The DEI movement may have started with good intentions, but across government, education and American business its functionaries have too often become ideological enforcers,” writes the Board.
Will these officers ever achive their goals? Far from it. “DEI officials have a vested interest in ensuring that the grievances of identity politics continue lest the offices have no reason to exist. As the Stanford experience shows, they promote racial division rather than redress it, and institutions need to rethink their value.”
Related:
My Struggle Session at Stanford Law School (WSJ, 3/17/23)
How to stop law students from blocking free speech (by Charles Lipson AM 74 PHD 76, Spectator, 3/16/23)
College administrators cannot promote their own politics (by Samuel Abrams AM 07 PHD 10, Washington Examiner, 3/16/23)
Stanford Law radicals want more censorship (The Dershow, 3/15/23)
Steinbach’s Premeditated Shutdown: New Revelations About SLS Event Show Collusion (Stanford Review, 3/15/23)
Student Activists Target Stanford Law School Dean in Revolt Over Her Apology (Free Beacon, 3/14/23)
Should the Names of Stanford Student Disrupters Be Published? (Dershowitz substack, 3/13/23)
Stanford Apology (Stanford President and Stanford Law Dean, 3/10/23)
Fifth circuit judge Kyle Duncan is calling on Stanford to axe DEI dean Tirien Steinbach (Free Beacon, 3/10/23)
