Prospective faculty members applying to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will no longer be required to submit diversity statements.
MIT is one of several universities whose presidents were scrutinized after testifying before Congress at the end of 2023 due to their policies regarding antisemitism. Ultimately, the presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania both resigned in the wake of the public outcry.
“My goals are to tap into the full scope of human talent, to bring the very best to MIT, and to make sure they thrive once here,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in her announcement, per The Hill. “We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work.”
The decision to end the requirement was reportedly backed by “the Provost, Chancellor, Vice President for Equity and Inclusion, and all six academic deans.”
Academics hoping to join MIT’s faculty were required to submit statements demonstrating their awareness of the “challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” according to The Daily Mail.
Other universities have similar requirements for individuals applying for faculty positions. The requirement has been regularly denounced as not only an impediment to free speech but as an ideological screening test.
“Mandatory DEI statements send the message that viewpoint diversity and dissent are neither valuable nor necessary—that if you’ve identified the right values, a monoculture in support of them is preferable,” wrote Conor Friedersdorf for The Atlantic in July 2023. “Academics who value DEI work should want smart critics of the approach commenting from inside academic institutions to point out flaws and shortcomings that boosters miss. Demanding that everyone get on board and embrace the same values and social-justice priorities will inevitably narrow the sort of people who apply to work and get hired in higher education.”
“In that sense, mandatory DEI statements are profoundly anti-diversity. And that strikes me as an especially perilous hypocrisy for academics to indulge at a time of falling popular support for higher education,” said Friedersdorf.
MIT is not alone in abandoning the diversity statement requirement.
In February of 2023, Texas Tech University dropped the requirement for prospective professors following a review of its hiring practices mandated by Governor Greg Abbott.
The National Association of Scholars celebrated the school’s decision.
“This is a breakthrough in the larger battle against higher education’s attempt to impose diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) standards on faculty hiring, along with every other aspect of college and university life,” wrote the NAS. “Sailer used a freedom of information request to obtain the public university search committee’s evaluations of candidates. This is the first time that the public has been able to see how DEI standards affect applicants.”
