U of Michigan abandons DEI statements

From the Detroit News: Diversity statements will no longer be used in University of Michigan faculty hiring, promotion and tenure, a controversial move some argue would remove "litmus tests" that restrict diversity of thought while diversity advocates criticized it as dishonest. Provost Laurie McCauley announced the decision Thursday based on a recommendation from a UM faculty working group to end diversity statements. The move by one of the nation's leading research universities followed actions to end the practice at other prestigious universities across the nation and came amid a backlash against diversity, equity and inclusion programs led by President-elect Donald Trump and conservative critics.

UM regents are also considering changes to the university's DEI initiatives, but they emphasized during their Thursday meeting they would not cut programs benefiting students, such as free tuition and college preparation programs. They made the statements after students from the Black Student Union and other groups protested on Thursday and earlier this week about feared cuts in the university's DEI programs.

Diversity statements are required of faculty job candidates to explain what experiences they would bring to the university along with how their scholarship and teaching would advance diversity. The statements help search committees identify applicants "who have professional skills, experience and/or willingness to engage in activities that would enhance campus diversity and equity efforts," according to a University of California at San Diego statement referenced by UM's Center for Research on Learning & Teaching.

UM's elimination of diversity statements is a first step that many are watching as DEI programs have become entrenched in many institutions, said Frederick Lynch, an emeritus associate professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California... "It will mean if Michigan can do it, just about anybody can do it," Lynch said about the elimination. "But it could also be a long battle in courts." ...

Full story at https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2024/12/05/um-to-no-longer-use-diversity-statements/76773567007/.

As we noted some time ago concerning this issue at UC, it has connections to the UC loyalty oath controversy of the 1950s, required statements saying that the employee was not a communist. Various court decisions in response to challenges to the original oath watered it down to a vague and vacuous agreement to uphold the state and federal constitutions, whatever that means. See:

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/08/more-on-loyalty-oaths.html; and https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/08/uc-history-loyalty-oath.html.

It seems likely (to yours truly) that such watering down - rather than a Regental intervention as at the U of Michigan - will be the path followed at UC. That's a prediction, of course. So far at least, direct court challenges in California have not produced verdicts favoring the plaintiffs. At UCLA most recently, the EDI office (UCLA's version of DEI) has been restructured and renamed "Inclusive Excellence":

https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/10/ucla-edi-office-dei-elsewhere-being.html.

Finally, apart from the libertarian/free speech/academic freedom approach, there is this:

University leaders read the same tea leaves as CEOs.