Spalding: DEI is 'toxic' and 'attacks the integrity' of academia

Education
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In higher education, many colleges and universities have assigned DEI offices and begun hiring positions based on DEI, such as diversity officers. | Unsplash/Dylan Gillis

Dr. Matthew Spalding of Hillsdale College believes that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, which have grown among colleges and universities in recent years, are working against the purpose or idea of a university. He suggests that though the words diversity, equity and inclusion have good origins and goals, current DEI plans within higher education will lead to their opposite intended ends, namely "ostracization and exclusion."

Spalding lays out the origins of the words diversity, equity and inclusion in his Wall Street Journal op-ed. Diversity, according to James Madison in Federalist 10, means "different opinions to be encouraged to preserve liberty." Equity is "an ancient legal concept of justice in particular cases, developed over centuries of English common-law practice" and inclusion means "to make a part of." Spalding says these meanings have been twisted so that together, DEI means something entirely different today.

"'Diversity, equity and inclusion'—the compound form of these modern concepts—is especially toxic. DEI attacks the integrity of the academic project," Spalding said.

Spalding said diversity now means "a demand to flatter and grant privileges to purportedly oppressed identity groups," equity "assigns desirable positions based on race, sex and sexual orientation rather than character, competence and merit" and inclusion now means "creating a social environment where identity groups are celebrated while those who disagree are maligned." Calling the modern concept of DEI "toxic," Spalding explains that in reality, it divides groups based on "privilege and power," eventually excluding certain people who are not on board with an agenda.

"Rather than being equally endowed with innate dignity and fundamental rights as human beings—best judged by our character and not skin color—we are supposed to discriminate and confer status based on race, sex and cultural affinity," Spalding said.

In higher education, many colleges and universities have assigned DEI offices and begun hiring positions based on DEI, such as diversity officers. Spalding said one review found an average of 45 DEI staff members at each school. The source is not given. He also claims approximately 20% of colleges require "DEI statements" when hiring. Spalding believes DEI initiatives are part of a college's administrative authority to adjust the school to a particular ideology. He argues that college should be "focused on learning and pursuing knowledge" and the "enduring question of human flourishing" not a "re-education session" that "deadens the academic mind." Ultimately, Spalding argues DEI creates an "environment of tension, fear and one-mindedness" that divides instead of unites, inviting censorship. He renames DEI as "unanimity, inequality and exclusion."

A recent Wall Street Journal piece by John Sailer at the National Association of Scholars found that Texas Tech University was using DEI statements as part of the requirements and candidate qualifications for hiring. According to the op-ed, Texas Tech University established a DEI committee that would “require and strongly weight a diversity statement from all candidates.” 

"These short, written declarations are meant to summarize an academic job seeker’s past and potential contributions to DEI efforts on campus," Sailer wrote. 

One candidate demonstrated a "lack of understanding" related to DEI and was flagged by the committee, according to documents. Another was praised for a well-rounded knowledge of "unconscious bias." Sailer said these required diversity statements incline "viewpoint discrimination" or judgement of a viewpoint rather than merit.

"Requiring faculty to catalog their commitment to those views necessarily blackballs anybody who dissents from an orthodoxy that has nothing to do with scientific competence," he wrote.

After Sailer's piece was published, Texas Tech Office of Communications and Marketing released a statement that read, "Texas Tech University's faculty hiring practices will always emphasize disciplinary excellence and the ability of candidates to support our priorities in student success, impactful scholarship and community engagement. Recently, we learned of a department that required a diversity, equity and inclusion statement in addition to the usual applicant materials as part of a faculty search. We immediately withdrew this practice and initiated a review of hiring procedures across all colleges and departments. We will withdraw the use of these statements and evaluation rubrics if identified."