We previously covered attacks on prestigious University of Chicago Geophysicist Doran Abbot, Cancel Mob Attacks U Chicago Geophysicist Dorian Abbot For Questioning Diversity Hiring Dogma:
Prof. Abbot’s big thought crime was expressing disagreement with some aspects of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” he considers counterproductive (and which may be unlawful). Prof. Abbot didn’t express disagreement with diversity as a goal, or extraordinary outreach to minority hiring prospects to expand the pool, or actions to make sure the hiring process was free from explicit or implicit bias. He supports all those things.Rather, after all that diversity initiative had been accomplished and a hiring decision had to be made, Prof. Abbot expressed the view that the most qualified remaining candidate should be chosen, which is consistent with U. Chicago policy.Expressing the view that the most qualified candidate should be hired apparently was too much, it required that Prof. Abbot be cancelled.
Prof. Abbot was not cancelled at U. Chicago, the university president rejected taking any action, and didn’t denounce or try to shame him. Instead, the U. Chicago President stood up for academic freedom. Period.
But Prof. Abbot was just cancelled, at MIT, where the same sort of attacks launched against him at U. Chicago caused MIT to cancel a speech by Prof. Abbot.
Here is the event page for the planned (and now cancelled) lecture (via Google cache):
The page now redirects to a password protected page:
Princeton Professor and academic freedom champion Robert George detailed what happened on Twitter:
Professor Abbot confirmed the cancellation on Twitter
The Newsweek Op-Ed co-authored by Prof. Abbot argued, among other things:
DEI violates the ethical and legal principle of equal treatment. It entails treating people as members of a group rather than as individuals, repeating the mistake that made possible the atrocities of the 20th century. It requires being willing to tell an applicant “I will ignore your merits and qualifications and deny you admission because you belong to the wrong group, and I have defined a more important social objective that justifies doing so.” It treats persons as merely means to an end, giving primacy to a statistic over the individuality of a human being….We propose an alternative framework called Merit, Fairness, and Equality (MFE) whereby university applicants are treated as individuals and evaluated through a rigorous and unbiased process based on their merit and qualifications alone. Crucially, this would mean an end to legacy and athletic admission advantages, which significantly favor white applicants, in addition to those based on group membership. Simultaneously, MFE would involve universities investing in education projects in neighborhoods where public education is failing to help children from those areas compete. These projects would be evidence-based and non-ideological, testing a variety of different options such as increased public school funding, charter schools and voucher programs.
I’m seeking more details on what led up to the cancellation, but it appears having a different view on “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” set off the now-common pathetic campus mob:
I will add more details as they become known, either as an update or in a subsequent post.
Academia is broken, and the pieces probably can’t be put back together again.
MIT media relations provided the following statement:
On the John Carlson Lecture hosted by the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS): This public outreach lecture will not be held this year at the discretion of the department. At the same time, Prof. Abbot was invited by the department to present his scientific work on MIT’s campus to students and faculty, and has been working with colleagues at MIT to plan a date.
Prof. Abbot responded to this statement in an email to me:
The Carlson lecture is a big honorific public lecture that is associated with a week-long visit during which the speaker also gives a department colloquium (technical material for specialists). My entire visit (scheduled for the week of October 18) has been cancelled, but they have said that they would like me to come give a technical talk at some point, either a department colloquium or something else. I want to forgive and work on maintaining/rebuilding scientific relationships, and I am planning to go when they ask me officially, but this hasn’t happened yet.
I think it’s important to emphasize, however, that this isn’t a replacement for being the Carlson Lecturer. Cancelling the Carlson Lecture sends the message that scientific honors and recognition are conditioned on holding the correct political positions, and that a small group of activists gets to define the acceptable positions.
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