Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences revealed that it will no longer require applicants for tenure-track positions to submit written pledges of commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Candidates applying for positions in Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences will now be required to provide a “service statement” detailing their initiatives to enhance academic communities such as departments, institutions, and professional societies, instead of a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statement.
This change in policy was quietly introduced in the spring and officially disclosed.
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), which pertains to professors in the undergraduate program and certain graduate schools within the university, began mandating DEI statements in tenure-track job applications during the 2019-2020 period, according to the Boston Globe. Gay was serving as the dean of FAS during this time.
Recent controversies, including leftist anti-Israel protests on campus and the removal of former president Claudine Gay, have brought attention to the influence of identity politics at Harvard in recent months.
Harvard Law School professor Randall Kennedy penned an opinion piece in the Harvard Crimson in April stating, “By requiring academics to profess — and flaunt — faith in DEI, the proliferation of diversity statements poses a profound challenge to academic freedom.”
The headline of Kennedy’s article read as, “Mandatory DEI Statements Are Ideological Pledges of Allegiance. Time to Abandon Them.”
Although the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) has eliminated the requirement for DEI statements, other departments at Harvard, such as the Graduate School of Education, are still retaining this practice.
The school requests applicants to provide a teaching philosophy statement that outlines their perspective on teaching, including details about their “orientation toward diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.”
In May, MIT made headlines by becoming the first prestigious university to eliminate the need for diversity statements in its faculty recruitment process.
Sally Kornbluth, the president of MIT, made a statement to National Review: “We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work.”
In March, the University of Florida took action to comply with a Florida Board of Governor’s regulation that restricts funding for diversity programs.
This resulted in the closure of the diversity department, termination of DEI staff, and cancellation of DEI contracts with external providers.
Consequently, the college shut down the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, removed DEI roles, and cut administrative appointments related to diversity.
In May, the Board of Trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill reduced funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the upcoming budget year. The allocated funds were redirected towards public safety and law enforcement initiatives instead.
“…DEI statements will essentially constitute pledges of allegiance that enlist academics into the DEI movement by dint of soft-spoken but real coercion: If you want the job or the promotion, play ball — or else,” Kennedy wrote in his op-ed for the Crimson. “… It does not take much discernment to see, moreover, that the diversity statement regime leans heavily and tendentiously towards varieties of academic leftism and implicitly discourages candidates who harbor ideologically conservative dispositions.”
Harvard recently announced that it will no longer issue official public statements on political matters.
This decision came after a report from an “Institutional Voice Working Group” established by interim president Alan Garber.
Under the guidance of interim Harvard Provost John F. Manning, the group was tasked with examining the university’s involvement in political issues. This inquiry was likely sparked by the criticism Harvard faced for its ambiguous response following the invasion of Israel by Hamas on October 7.
According to Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman, who serves as the co-chair of the working group, the report recommends that the university maintain political neutrality while promoting free and open discussions, dialogues, and the pursuit of truth.
