FEATURED
Key Takeaways
- A survey of 10,170 faculty job advertisements revealed that over 22% required diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements, with a higher prevalence in STEM fields (25.5%) compared to humanities and social sciences.
- Private institutions requested DEI statements at a higher rate (28.6%) than public institutions (19.0%), indicating a significant divide in hiring practices.
- Some public universities in states where DEI statements are banned have adapted by soliciting DEI-related information through cover letters and teaching philosophies instead.
- Critics argue that DEI statements act as political litmus tests, hindering open inquiry and diminishing viewpoint diversity, while supporters contend they foster inclusivity in hiring.
More than one out of every five job advertisements for professors sought some sort of diversity, equity and inclusion statement, according to the recently released results of a survey of 10,000 faculty help wanted ads.
What’s more, faculty jobs ads for STEM fields requested DEI materials at the highest rate — 25.5 percent — compared to humanities ads at 23.5 percent and social sciences at 24.8 percent.
Professional and interdisciplinary fields such as business and law had the lowest share of DEI statement requests at 11 percent, according to the survey, conducted by Heterodox Academy last fall. The group released the results this month.
The organization looked at a dataset of 10,170 job advertisements to paint a comprehensive picture on the topic, billing it as one the largest reviews of DEI statements to date.
The review found more than 22 percent of the 10,000-plus faculty job advertisements, or roughly 2,200, “requested DEI statements or other DEI-related materials, with private institutions (28.6%) requesting them at higher rates than public institutions (19.0%).”
“The requirement of DEI statements for hiring serve as political litmus tests for incoming faculty,” Heterodox spokesperson Nicole Barbaro Simovski told The College Fix. “The practice undermines open inquiry and can function to reduce particular types of viewpoint diversity among the faculty.”
“Faculty hiring should be focused on assessing the applicant’s abilities across the core job responsibilities of faculty which are teaching, research (at institutions that require faculty to conduct research), and service,” she said via email.
Some universities have found ways to still obtain some sort of diversity, equity and inclusion statement from faculty applicants in states where they have been banned.
“In states with bans on the use of DEI statements in faculty hiring at public institutions, it appears that some public institutions have adapted by asking applicants to give DEI-related information in cover letters, teaching philosophies, and other application materials,” according to the report.
For example, a statistics faculty job ad requested a research statement that “should include experience or plans to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion within the statistics research community.”
Other applicants were asked to address “how you would bring issues of diversity to bear on your contributions to the teaching and programming” in their philosophy statement.
In some cases, hiring committees may not state where they want the information, simply asking about “their commitment to inclusion and belonging” in the overall requests for documents.
“Analysis shows that public institutions in New England, the Mid-Atlantic and the West Coast requested DEI statements from faculty applicants at much higher rates than public institutions in the Southeast and Texas,” Barbaro Simovski told The Fix
“The Midwest and the Mountain West regions exhibit more intraregional variation,” she said.
Philosophy statements are another tool to obtain a DEI statement, the report found. Faculty hiring committees ask how the applicant plans to “advance diversity, equity, and inclusion” in the classroom.
Another way scholars avoid accusations of DEI requirements is by deleting or changing the language used throughout the institution. In some instances, colleges and universities only use “diversity” and “inclusion” rather than all three, or use them singularly, the research found.
A tactic the research also uncovered are job applications that mention values that are closely associated with DEI rather than the term itself, such as “social justice,” “anti-racism,” “belonging,” “team culture,” “cultural competency,” or “accessibility.”
Another study on DEI statements published in March by the Manhattan Institute also found that while some universities have removed standalone DEI statements, “applicants are expected to incorporate DEI discussions within their teaching, research, and service statements instead.”
Another group that has reviewed DEI statements is the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression in recent years. The group states that it “strongly objects to attempts to ban the teaching of certain viewpoints in college classrooms. Requirements that faculty endorse particular views are equally impermissible.
In a statement to The College Fix, Ross Marchand, program counsel for FIRE, said that “an institution can certainly state that it values concepts like diversity, equity, or inclusion.”
“The problem is when public universities—bound by the First Amendment—or private schools that promise free speech require statements from applicants affirming these values,” he said via email.
“First Amendment principles protect not only the right to speak, but also the right to refrain from speaking,” Ross said, noting the Supreme Court has held that administrators can’t force individuals to utter what is not in their minds.
Marchand compared DEI statements to “litmus tests, crowding out views that administrators and hiring managers may not like. Defenders of required DEI statements often downplay these risks, arguing that the focus on DEI creates opportunities for applicants.”
