Prof. Randall Kennedy (Harvard): "Mandatory DEI Statements Are Ideological Pledges of Allegiance. Time to Abandon Them."

An excellent opinion piece in the Harvard Crimson, by one of the nation's leading scholars of race and the law. An excerpt:

On a posting for a position as an assistant professor in international and comparative education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, applicants are required to submit a CV, a cover letter, a research statement, three letters of reference, three or more writing samples, and a statement of teaching philosophy that includes a description of their "orientation toward diversity, equity, and inclusion practices."

At Harvard and elsewhere, hiring for academic jobs increasingly requires these so-called diversity statements, which Harvard's Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning describes as being "about your commitment to furthering EDIB within the context of institutions of higher education."

By requiring academics to profess — and flaunt — faith in DEI, the proliferation of diversity statements poses a profound challenge to academic freedom.

A closer look at the Bok Center's page on diversity statements illustrates how….

I am a scholar on the left committed to struggles for social justice. The realities surrounding mandatory DEI statements, however, make me wince. The practice of demanding them ought to be abandoned, both at Harvard and beyond.