In the future, only two types of people may be able to teach at our major universities—leftists and liars. That’s because it is increasingly necessary to publicly adhere to extreme left wing views in order to be hired to teach at the university level. Here’s The Economist:
Davidson College, in North Carolina, asked prospective computer-science staff to write about their “potential to contribute to our commitment to equity and anti-racism”—a cause fervently embraced by the left and despised by the right. Berkeley has distributed guidance on how search committees ought to evaluate diversity statements. They say that any candidate who does not discuss gender or race must be awarded low marks. The same goes for any earnest classical liberal who “explicitly states the intention to ignore the varying backgrounds of their students and ‘treat everyone the same’.”
I spent decades teaching economics at the university level. But given my view that everyone should be treated equally, I’d have no chance at being hired today in many universities (not all.)
Of course this sort of thing often occurred in places such as the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of China:
“People are unwilling to push back because they are afraid to lose their funding, and no one wants to become a martyr for defending reason,” says Anna Krylov, a professor of chemistry at the University of Southern California. Professor Krylov studied in the former Soviet Union and sees parallels that are “a little too close”. Rather than Marxism-Leninism, “you really have to pledge your commitment to critical social justice.”
People often ask me why I object to woke ideology. The fact that they ask this question makes me suspect that they haven’t kept up with what’s going on in our universities.
READER COMMENTS
Jon Murphy
Apr 23 2023 at 11:58am
We are starting to see some pushback, though. The UNC system (where I am currently employed) has banned diversity statements. In my recent job search (which successfully concluded with a TT job), I saw fairly few schools requiring diversity statements.
That said, it’s possible (probable?) that my experience is selection bias: with a few exceptions, I didn’t aim for many R1 schools (University of Memphis and University of Arizona are the only places I did and they had no diversity statement requirements). New England schools did and in three of my interviews (University of New England, UMASS-Lowellm and your old school Bentley) but made diversity a major part of the interview. In fact, the UMASS-Lowell interview was focused entirely on diversity and little about me. It actually got uncomfortable.
All this is just my observations, so take it for what it’s worth.
Scott Sumner
Apr 23 2023 at 12:35pm
Thanks for that information. I hope the tide has turned.
SK
Apr 25 2023 at 9:19am
Good luck with your job search, but the positives you noted are somewhat expected given the location of those schools. A similar woke narrative to schools in the East would be quite telling.
steve
Apr 23 2023 at 1:21pm
We have a number of professors attending our church, mostly STEM. I am officially an assistant professor at our medical school. The medical school has a diversity officer but it doesnt impact me. I have been required to attend one diversity training session in the 30 years I have worked here, which was after several staff kept using the N word even when asked to stop. They weren’t fired. I do the hiring for my department and I have never mentioned diversity. Talking with my professor friends it sounds pretty similar for them, though I think they have to have an annual class and they get an email update once a month or so. Not an issue with their hiring. The diversity staff (DEI?) seems to mostly be aimed at working with the students.
So I think stuff like what is cited at Davidson really happens, but the fact that it is actually news and not dog bites man suggests its not omnipresent and when present often trivial.
Steve
Scott Sumner
Apr 25 2023 at 8:33am
“So I think stuff like what is cited at Davidson really happens, but the fact that it is actually news”
To be clear, The Economist just cites this as one of many examples. They suggest that the problem is widespread, which is clearly true.
Michael Sandifer
Apr 24 2023 at 1:21am
I suspect I’m in the majority in being out of touch with what goes on in college these days, as I graduated two decades ago. I see no impact of woke-ism on my life at all, and never have. Diversity doesn’t bother me. On the contrary, I like seeing the diversity that actually exists also exist in media and government, etc.
I also am not directly impacted by the fascist turn against talking about LGBT issues in public schools here in Florida, except that it has caused my gay brother to leave the state, with my brother who has a transgendered child to follow him shortly. That has very much upset me.
That’s not to say that what’s going on in colleges isn’t important, but the culture wars going on in public schools across the country seem to directly impacting many more people.
MarkW
Apr 25 2023 at 7:48am
That’s not to say that what’s going on in colleges isn’t important, but the culture wars going on in public schools across the country seem to directly impacting many more people.
Given the numbers of HS grads who go on to higher education, the numbers seem pretty comparable, and the stakes (and pressures to conform) are higher at the university level.
As for what’s happened with transgender policy in Florida — I don’t like it. But we’ve been seeing an explosion in the numbers of teens and pre-teens (especially girls) identifying as transgender in recent years. And some K12 teachers and school employees seem to be promoting this even to extent of helping students transition and keep it secret from their parents.
There are two possibilities here. One is that previous generations had as many transgender people as Gen Z, but people didn’t feel free to express it. The other is that we’re dealing with social contagion (something that teen girls seem especially vulnerable to). My sense is that it is far more the latter than the former. My main reason for believing this is that we’ve not seen comparably huge increases in older cohorts (or boys) now that transitioning has become more socially acceptable. If it is a kind of fad that we will later look back at in disbelief (which I think is likely), then what should be the role of public schools here, and what should be the role of governments be in determining that role?
Rajat
Apr 24 2023 at 8:19am
The same is true for most jobs these days, except in small businesses.
Mark Z
Apr 24 2023 at 2:17pm
Such statements likely serve as a way to surreptitiously racially or ethically discriminate now that the legality of affirmative action is being challenged by the courts. It provides an opportunity for applicants to say, ‘as a member of x-group, I served in the X-student association at Yale to help students of X on campus…’ Members of the target groups are probably more likely to support the ideals of the statements and to have engaged in activities conducive to meeting the qualifications of the diversity statements. I’d guess how common these statements are is and will be correlated with the legality of affirmative action.
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