The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has abandoned its controversial hiring practice that requires prospective professors to write a “diversity statement” as part of the application process.
Previously, the university required faculty applicants to provide the hiring team with a statement demonstrating “knowledge of challenges related to diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Applicants were also asked to describe their “history of working with diverse groups of people” and share how they plan to promote diversity, equity (DEI), and inclusion within their role at the school.
MIT President Dr. Sally Kornbluth has now decided to remove the requirement because “mandated” diversity statements supposedly “impinge on free speech” and “do not work,” the university confirmed to DailyMail.com.
The school is the first elite private university to reverse the controversial application practice.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) President Dr. Sally Kornbluth, pictured in December, abandoned the university’s controversial hiring practice that requires prospective professors to write a “diversity statement” as part of the recruitment process. application.
An MIT spokesperson confirmed Monday that “requests for a diversity statement will no longer be part of applications for any faculty positions at MIT.”
Kornbluth made the decision to reform the much-criticized hiring practice with the “support of the provost, the chancellor, and the six academic deans.”
The president said she believes MIT can “build an inclusive environment” without requiring diversity statements.
“My goals are to harness the full breadth of human talent, bring the best to MIT, and ensure they thrive once here,” Kornbluth told DailyMail.com in a statement.
“We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but forced statements affect freedom of expression and do not work.”
The policy change comes after a survey last year by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group, found that students and teachers were “not clear” whether the “administration protects freedom of expression.”
The report, published in January 2023, found that “many MIT faculty and students are afraid to express their views in various academic settings.”
About 25 percent of teachers reported that they were “very” or “extremely” likely to self-censor, FIRE survey revealed. Forty-one percent of teachers also agreed that the administration’s stance on free speech was “unclear.”
Previously, MIT required faculty applicants to provide the hiring team with a statement demonstrating “knowledge of challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Applicants were also asked to describe their “history of working with diverse groups of people” and share how they plan to promote diversity, equity (DEI), and inclusion within their role at the school (pictured: Maclaurin buildings on the MIT campus).
Last month, a Harvard Law School professor urged the Ivy League, of which MIT is not a part, to eliminate mandatory diversity statements.
Randall L. Kennedy, in a column in crimson harvardargued that requiring professors to sign DEI statements “poses a profound challenge to academic freedom.”
He argued that DEI statements force faculty and staff to “toe a political line,” exert pressure toward “leftist conformity,” and “incite cynicism.”
“Universities have a legal, moral, and pedagogical duty to take action against unlawful discriminatory conduct,” Kennedy wrote.
“But the DEI’s mandatory disclosure requirements go far beyond that obligation and into territory full of pitfalls contrary to an intellectually healthy university environment.”
The DEI declaration policy, which often leads to selective hiring of minorities or specific demographic groups to increase diversity, was strongly pushed by Harvard’s first black president, Claudine Gay.
Gay, along with the presidents of UPenn and MIT, were summoned to a congressional hearing in December of last year to account for the rise of anti-Semitism on their college campuses.
During the hearing, Gay refused to categorize calls for Jewish genocide as harassment or admit that Jewish students had a right to feel safe at Ivy League schools.
Gay resigned as president of Harvard in January but did not apologize for the testimony. The academic had actively pushed a DEI agenda at the university and had herself been criticized for not being qualified for the position.
The DEI declaration policy was strongly pushed by Harvard’s first black woman president, Claudine Gay. Gay, along with the presidents of UPenn and MIT, were called to a congressional hearing in December 2023 (pictured) to account for the rise of anti-Semitism on their college campuses.
Higher education institutions aren’t the only companies reviewing their DEI hiring practices. Last year’s Supreme Court ruling striking down the use of affirmative action at universities has drawn attention to corporate diversity efforts.
In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis and in Texas universities, Governor Greg Abbott introduced laws limiting the use of DEI policies in public schools.
Several US companies have distanced themselves from controversial diversity initiatives in the wake of the row over university anti-Semitism, business consultants revealed earlier this year.
The spate of anti-Semitism on some of the country’s most elite college campuses has reportedly further dragged the term DEI into a toxic political debate that companies now wish to distance themselves from.
“Attention is shifting away from ‘those three words’ and toward efforts around ‘wellness and inclusion,'” Diana Scott of The Conference Board he told axios in January.
DEI had already attracted some high-profile critics from the business world, including Elon Musk and billionaire Bill Ackman.