The practice of using diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) guidelines to hire at the Texas A&M University system is getting a legal test.
Richard Lowery, a professor from UT-Austin, filed a lawsuit against Texas A&M claiming that the policy discriminates against White and Asian males.
“History is being made today,” Stephen Miller, president of America First Legal, said in a release. “America First Legal has filed a landmark class action lawsuit against Texas A&M University for its illegal and unconstitutional racial discrimination regime. Texas A&M is hiring—and excluding—professors solely due to the physical appearance of their skin or the ancestry of their family tree. This is vile and outrageous.”
Texas A&M instituted the Accountability, Climate, Equity and Scholarship (ACES) program in an attempt to hire professors from “diverse backgrounds” and to encourage underrepresented groups to apply. The university system implemented the policy after the Committee on DEI released a report that found the system was falling short on hiring a more diverse faculty from 2015-2019. The report cited a “lack of accountability” and offered the ACES program as a “faculty pipeline initiative (that) promotes the research, teaching and scholarship of early career scholars who embrace the belief that diversity is an indispensable component of academic excellence.”
The report says that “As an institution, Texas A&M has added a mandatory question to faculty and staff applications regarding ways they will work to value DEI for applicants. A question for reference checks now addresses this question as well. These are small steps, but more is needed to help ensure that DEI is valued on the campus, particularly when it comes to hiring faculty and staff.”
Lowery’s lawsuit was reported on in The College Fix. The lawsuit argues that Texas A&M’s “proclaimed goal of establishing a faculty whose racial composition attains ‘parity with that of the state of Texas’ seeks to achieve racial balancing, which is flatly illegal under Title VI and the binding precedent of the Supreme Court.”
Under Title VI, the lawsuit states, universities cannot accept federal funds while hiring based on race. The lawsuit criticizes Texas A&M for using the policy known as “affirmative action” “to hire and promote inferior faculty candidates over individuals with better scholarship, better credentials, and better teaching ability.” It claims Texas A&M, and many other universities across the country, of participating in illegal action behind the purpose of diversity, equity and inclusion.
The “suggestion that there is widespread discrimination is false,” Laylan Copelin, speaking for Texas A&M, told The College Fix. In reference to ACES, Copelin added, “The specific program is brand new and no one has been hired under it.”
Lowery’s attorney, Gene P. Hamilton, has asked for a court monitor to oversee all of Texas A&M’s hiring procedures.
“There’s a lot of programs across the country that are very similar to this one that are equally unlawful and egregious,” he told the Chronicle, “and we hope to challenge those over time.”
He added that the goal is to have the court rule that “the hiring practices employed by Texas A&M University are illegal” and to issue an injunction against the hiring practice.
Under the Office of Diversity, the ACES program webpage reads: “From this experience at Texas A&M, fellows should develop an understanding of the value of diversity and inclusion and the power that it holds for students, faculty, and staff to enrich their lives.”
The webpage speaks to Texas A&M’s values of DEI: “Texas A&M upholds its responsibility to accountability, campus climate, equity, and scholarship by maintaining a campus that affirms equity and fosters inclusion and belonging.” ACES professors are intended to become tenure-track faculty.
A job listing for Health Policy and Management under the School of Public Health says, “Texas A&M University is committed to enriching the learning and working environment for all visitors, students, faculty, and staff by promoting a culture that embraces inclusion, diversity, equity, and accountability. Diverse perspectives, talents, and identities are vital to accomplishing our mission and living our core values.”
The listing further says, “The school engages in strategies to create and sustain an inclusive climate for all, building an environment in which diversity of experiences, thoughts, personal and professional backgrounds are valued and leveraged to strengthen our school. We seek individuals who are committed to eradicating institutionalized barriers to progress across all realms (health, economic, education) in their leadership, research, teaching and/or service. Ideal candidates should be eager to continue and expand these efforts upon joining our team.”
Texas A&M allocated $2 million for the ACES program, according to a June 2021 memo. “The presence of faculty of color is also integral to the University’s mission to provide the highest quality of undergraduate and graduate education and develop new understandings through research and creativity,” Annie McGown, the vice president and associate provost for diversity, and N.K. Anand, vice president for faculty affairs, said in the memo to all deans.
