Harvard Faculty Division Removes DEI-Statement Requirement

On Monday, the largest division of Harvard University, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard (FAS), announced that it was removing its previous requirement for job applicants to submit a diversity statement. Previously, any applicant to a tenure-track position would have to submit a statement explaining his fidelity to the principles of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

The move follows on the heels of Harvard’s decision last week to cease making official public statements on political subjects and April’s decision to resume a standardized testing requirement for undergraduate applicants.

While scrapping the explicit DEI statement, Harvard left in a mandatory statement asking potential candidates about their “efforts to strengthen academic communities” and create a “learning environment in which students are encouraged to ask questions and share their ideas.” This question’s vagueness could potentially be used to promote those who give answers along the lines of a DEI statement. Stanford used a similarly bland question, “What matters to you, and why?” to select a student who answered the prompt by writing “#BlackLivesMatter” a hundred times. Furthermore, outside of FAS, other Harvard departments still require DEI statements.

Regardless, as the same bureaucratic structures that have promoted DEI and left-wing politics remain at Harvard, it is unlikely that this move of removing a DEI statement requirement will turn Harvard into a colorblind meritocracy.

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