Report

Other Than Merit: The Prevalence of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statements in University Hiring

By Robert Maranto | James D. Paul

American Enterprise Institute

November 08, 2021

Key Points

  • Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statement requirements for job applicants seeking university faculty posts seem increasingly common.
  • Proponents claim these requirements create a more inclusive academy. Critics claim they amount to political correctness loyalty oaths. Yet, until now, no one has conducted an empirical investigation of their prevalence or how these requirements vary across academic disciplines, geographic regions, type of faculty position, and university prestige.
  • Prestigious universities are significantly more likely to have DEI requirements than nonprestigious universities. Perhaps surprisingly, these statements are as prevalent in STEM fields as in the humanities and social sciences, once controls are accounted for.
  • Regular faculty posts are more likely to require DEI statements than adjunct and postdoc positions. Relative to other regions, jobs in the West are most likely to require DEI statements.

Read the PDF.

Introduction

Traditionally, American universities have prided themselves on being meritocratic institutions dedicated to the disinterested pursuit of academic excellence and the production and dissemination of new knowledge. But increasingly, universities are not hiring faculty based purely on the quality and promise of their scholarship. Rather, more and more candidates for professorships are also being screened on their commitment to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI).

In 2018, Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow Heather Mac Donald drew attention, in a Los Angeles Times op-ed, to the decision at the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) to require statements from all faculty applicants documenting their contributions to DEI, which would be weighted with the rest of their application portfolio.1 Since Mac Donald’s warning, the University of California (UC) system has likely become the leading university system embracing mandatory DEI statements from faculty applicants.

As of 2019, eight out of 10 UC campuses required these statements. A joint task force recommended that DEI requirements be standardized across the UC system.2 At the University of California, Berkeley, administrators published a sample “Rubric for Assessing Candidate Contributions to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging,” which provides guidance for search committees evaluating applicants.3 Under this rubric, applicants are evaluated on a 1–5 scale for knowledge of DEI, track record of DEI, and plans for advancing DEI. And UCLA’s decision noted that diversity statements were becoming more common nationally and that growth would continue.

Anecdotal evidence suggests mandated diversity statements are indeed becoming routine.4 But there have been no empirical investigations into the frequency with which such statements are required nor how they vary across academic disciplines, geographic regions, type of faculty position, and university prestige. This report represents the first empirical examination of this question.

There are strong normative arguments for and against DEI statements in faculty hiring. Proponents of DEI statements argue that they are tools to ensure applicants from traditionally underrepresented groups receive fair consideration and to compose faculty who resemble students demographically.5 When UCLA’s executive vice chancellor and provost announced that all academic units at UCLA would require diversity statements, he argued it would enhance the university’s ability to attract diverse candidates, “particularly those most vigilant of subtle cues concerning institutional culture and values.”6 Similarly, others have argued that diversity statements help foster inclusive academic enivornments.7

Critics argue that mandatory DEI statements erode free speech and serve as “political litmus tests with teeth,” reducing ideological diversity and faculty quality.8 For instance, as Andrew Gillen points out regarding applications for a single life sciences faculty post at Berkeley,

The scale of the resulting purge would make Stalin blush. Of 893 nominally qualified candidates, 679 were eliminated solely due to insufficiently woke diversity, equity and inclusion statements. In other words, Berkeley used a political litmus test to eliminate over three-quarters of the applicant pool.9

Ideological conformity may also result in a narrowing of research questions, with negative consequences for intellectual pursuits.

This report takes no stance on the normative questions presented by the rise of DEI statements. (To address the normative question, AEI’s Max Eden and Scott Yenor have another, forthcoming report). But we hope that by highlighting how prevalent they have become, we can spark a policy conversation at the state and federal level about their propriety.

Read the full report.

Notes

  1. Heather Mac Donald, “UCLA’s Infatuation with Diversity Is a Costly Diversion from Its True Mission,” Los Angeles Times, September 2, 2018, https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mac-donald-diversity-ucla-20180902-story.html.
  2. University of California, University Committee on Affirmative Action, Diversity, and Equity, University of California Systemwide Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Administrators Group, “The Use of Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEl) Statements for Academic Positions at the University of California,” January 23, 2019, https://academic-senate.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/use_of_dei_statements_for_academic_positions_at_uc.pdf.
  3. University of California, Berkeley, “Rubric for Assessing Candidate Contributions to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging,” https://ofew.berkeley.edu/recruitment/contributions-diversity/rubric-assessing-candidate-contributions-diversity-equity-and.
  4. Sarah Brown, “More Colleges Are Asking Scholars for Diversity Statements. Here’s What You Need to Know.,” Chronicle of Higher Education, January 29, 2019, https://www.chronicle.com/article/more-colleges-are-asking-scholars-for-diversity-statements-heres-what-you-need-to-know/.
  5. Leslie Davis and Richard Fry, “College Faculty Have Become More Racially and Ethnically Diverse, but Remain Far Less So Than Students,” Pew Research Center, July 31, 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/07/31/us-college-faculty-student-diversity/; and Karen Hamrick et al., “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering,” National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics,2019, https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf19304/digest.
  6. Scott Waugh, “New EDI Statement Requirement for Regular Rank Faculty Searches,” University of California, Los Angeles, May 24, 2018, https://equity.ucla.edu/news-and-events/new-edi-statement-requirement-for-regular-rank-faculty-searches/.
  7. Carmen Mitchell, “Why Colleges Should Require Faculty Diversity Statements,” Inside Higher Ed, November 15, 2018, https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/11/15/benefits-faculty-diversity-statements-opinion.
  8. Abigail Thompson, “The University’s New Loyalty Oath,”Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2019,https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-universitys-new-loyalty-oath-11576799749.
  9. Andrew Gillen, “The Impact of the Left’s Takeover of Academia on the Quality of Higher Education,” Areo, April 29, 2020, https://areomagazine.com/2020/04/29/the-impact-of-the-lefts-takeover-of-academia-on-the-quality-of-higher-education/.