The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) asserted that the use of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) criteria such as diversity statements in hiring and promoting staff is a key component for “academic freedom,” according to an October report.
AAUP’s “Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure” views DEI criteria in hiring processes as positive, arguing that it can help assess faculty members’ skills and achievements, the report states. Along with claiming DEI statements go hand-in-hand with academic freedom, the committee also says that colleges and universities have a duty to teach about inequality.
The organization rejects claims from critics who oppose DEI statements, rebuking the notion that they are a “political litmus test” or an “ideological screening tool” to weed out conservative candidates and that they are not a form of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination as others have suggested.
AAUP instead argues that using DEI statements in the processes of hiring, rehiring and granting tenure assists in promoting diversity and potential positive outcomes when faculty members are asked about their teaching approach and research interests, the report states.
“Criticisms of DEI statements and other criteria often conflate social and institutional values with imposed orthodoxies,” the report says. “Sweeping or abstract criticisms of DEI criteria fundamentally — and often deliberately — misunderstand and misrepresent this distinction. A college or university might institutionally value (1) recruiting and retaining a diverse student population, (2) recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty to teach those students, and (3) teaching, research, and service that respond to the needs of a diverse global public.”
The organization claims that opposition to DEI statements leads to limiting other areas of teaching and research, such as gender and race-related areas of study not being labeled as “intellectual,” DEI and academic freedom in a social and institutional sense are compromised.
DEI statements at colleges and universities in hiring have been attacked in recent years due to them often requiring candidates to endorse certain ideologies or political views that affirm DEI initiatives that many view as racist. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology banned the requirement for prospective faculty to produce the statements in May.
The AAUP did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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