Texas A&M University System Bans Diversity Statements in Hiring Practices
“No university or agency in the A&M System will admit any student, nor hire any employee based on any factor other than merit”
This is great news. People really seem to be catching on to how bad DEI policies are.
The Texas Tribune reports:
Texas A&M University System bans diversity statements from job applications
Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp has directed leaders of its 11 universities and eight agencies to stop asking job candidates for statements about their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in their applications.
Last month, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office sent a letter to public universities and state agencies saying that DEI hiring practices violated federal and state employment laws and barring them from hiring on factors “other than merit.” Legal experts have said the governor’s office mischaracterized the legal practices employers use when considering diversity in their hiring.
Sharp said Thursday he directed all A&M system universities and agencies to review their employment and admissions practices. He said he is standardizing hiring practices systemwide by limiting faculty and staff applications to a cover letter, curriculum vitae, statements on research or teaching philosophies and professional references.
“No university or agency in the A&M System will admit any student, nor hire any employee based on any factor other than merit,” Sharp said in a directive sent to university leaders Thursday.
Texas State University System Chancellor Brian McCall shared similar instructions to the seven institutions in his system on Thursday. On Friday, University of Houston System Renu Khator followed suit when she said in a letter to system employees that the system of more than 47,000 students would also not allow the use of diversity statements in hiring or promotion at any of its four universities.
Hat tip to John Sailer:
NEW: The Texas A&M University System has ended the use of DEI statements in both admissions and faculty hiring.
“No university or agency in the A&M System will admit any student, nor hire any employee based on any factor other than merit.” pic.twitter.com/JuOrQizybb
— John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) March 3, 2023
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Comments
Thank God. An administration with a spine. Better build more dorms. Gig’em.
So the Aggie regents now are shocked, shocked, to find that this is going on.
It’s only been metastasizing for the last several years, with zero pushback from those who are supposed to be protecting the public’s interests. Like the gutless wonders on the UT System board of regents, the Aggie board has been asleep at the switch on this.
And the diversicrats at TAMU know their regents are limp about it. Heck, they are cocky enough to be openly discussing how they will circumvent the ban:
https://twitter.com/scottyenor/status/1626237539999977489?s=12&t=8kGVxnh4EsMJ0CcJHjn2CQ
Now, this was before the official announcement from A&M, but after the three principal speakers had been named as defendants in Rich Lowery’s test case against A&M, and after Texas Tech announced it was discontinuing any use of diversity statements. They truly do not care, because they suffer no penalty at all for violating the law.
This is problem with most of the “feel good” anti-DEI bills that have been proposed. Unless such bills have some real teeth (such as private rights of action to enforce them), especially at state universities the diversicrats will just ignore and act to circumvent the law, because “whaddya gonna do about it?” (See, e.g.. how UC System employees have simply ignored the California constitutional ban on racial preferences in admissions and hiring — with complete impunity.)
Progressive governance: Let’s try some really novel, outrageous ideas, and intimidate anyone who complains by calling them racists or fascists or Nazis. Eventually, some of these programs may crash and burn, and cost a lot of people a lot of money, and maybe even kill a fair number… in which case, we’ll roll them back under duress, shrieking and whining all the while. But at least we tried.
Conservative governance: Let’s carefully avoid implementing any obviously stupid ideas.
Such good news. My son is in grad school at A&M and his advisor is just outstanding. Maybe there is one academic center that has gone Marxist?
I see where the LGBTQ..whatever crowd is not going to schools banning this crap. What an ancillary benefit.
A meaningless and toothless standard. They will just redefine merit to include giving the correct DEI statement.