This is an interesting and informative essay, which documents systematically the process that led to the now notorious "diversity statements." (Note that it was pressure from the legislature that started all of this; we often note the mischief wrought on universities by legislatures in conservative states, but California provides an example of the potential trouble for public universities in liberal states.)
An excerpt from the essay:
Mutual support between the representational and intellectual missions of the University has thus been the aspiration of policy makers over the last decade, as the phrase inviting UC campuses to strive for “diversity and excellence” expresses so clearly. But the balance is changing. Academic freedom was sacrificed for the representational mission when an accounting professor at UCLA was placed on academic leave for denying students’ demands for a “no-harm” final exam following the death of George Floyd (Flaherty, 2020). It was violated when a political science professor at UCLA was subjected to a review by the University’s Discrimination Prevention Office for presenting Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and clips from a documentary on racism, both of which included the “N-word” (Korn, 2020). It was compromised when UC Berkeley faculty and students were advised not to use the phrase “America is a melting pot” or a “land of opportunity” (Volokh 2015). And the climate for academic freedom became chillier when a professor of history at Berkeley wrote an open letter to colleagues expressing concern about the “racial injustice” and “institutional racism” narratives of the anti-racism movement and the Berkeley’s history department responded by issuing a statement that it “condemn[s] this letter: it goes against our values as a department and our commitment to equity and inclusion” (Grimes, 2020).
Unlike these examples, most of the changes in the day-to-day affairs of the University have not reached the media; they have been incremental, including administrative appointments vetted for adherence to the University’s DEI values; the labeling of DEI statements in department meetings as “helpful” and academic freedom statements as “defensive”; and the institution of “voluntary” listening and diversity training sessions in which the loyalty of those absent becomes questionable in the eyes of attendees. These incremental changes eventually lead to qualitative shifts. In 2020, we heard for the first time a new motto, not “Diversity and Excellence,” but “Diversity is Excellence.”
Even as they have tipped the balance from the intellectual mission of the University, DEI initiatives have also provided shelter and legitimacy for social-justice activists who have mounted direct attacks on the University’s culture of rationalism. These faculty members and students are highly critical of the outcomes of administrative reforms and desire a much more fundamental transformation of the University into an instrument of progressive politics. Yet they could not have grown as strong as they have without the uncritical support of DEI-focused administrators. Thus, the two movements – the administrative movement to expand DEI policies and the activist challenge – are intertwined despite their divergent aims and methods.
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