U. of Washington Professor Blasts Campus Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statements

U. of Washington Professor Blasts Campus Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Statements

Dr. Clifford Mass is an American professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington. His research focuses on numerical weather modeling and prediction

He got a B.S. in physics at Cornell University in 1974.

Mass maintains a popular weather blog and gives frequent public lectures on topics ranging from Washington state weather history to issues related to climate change. One of his recent posts was fascinating.

Mass blasted campuses’ diversity-equity-inclusion (DEI) statements as “destructive to the foundational values of academia, create a monoculture of opinion, act as a litmus test of political belief, and often hurt the groups they are meant to support.”

His critique is divided into three main areas:

DEI Statements are Compelled Speech

The First Amendment bars the government from compelling people to express ideas they do not want to say. Thus, it is illegal for a state university, such as the University of Washington, to compel faculty speech, and this is particularly egregious if the required speech is political in nature.

To illustrate, a number of the current University of Washington faculty job announcements compel speech by requiring that the applicants state their commitment to DEI principles. For example, the applicant for an Assistant Professor position of School Psychology in the UW College of Education must provide “a one-page diversity statement describing your experience and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” This is clearly contrary to the First Amendment.

…The compelled speech of faculty DEI statements is similar in nature to the infamous University loyalty oaths of the late 1940s and early 1950s, where applicants had to attest to their commitment to American institutions and rejection of communist ideology….

DEI Statements are Abusive to Faculty

DEI statements have substantial potential for abuse, such as serving as a litmus test of political belief, screening out candidates of particular backgrounds and beliefs, or giving preference to candidates from specific racial, ethnic, or sexual orientation groups. Such statements also have the potential to lessen the quality of faculty teaching, research, and service, or to reduce the diversity of viewpoints among college faculty.

At some institutions, such as some schools in the University of California system, DEI statements have been used to filter faculty candidates BEFORE their academic and teaching credentials were considered. Thus, a brilliant potential faculty member destined for Nobel-Prize-level contributions would be rejected if her commitment to DEI was not sufficient….

No Evidence Produces Any Positive Benefit for Anyone

…. An extensive search of the academic literature finds no published studies documenting the value of faculty DEI statements, and inquiries to DEI statement supporters reveal they have no evidence to cite. In contrast, faculty DEI statements have substantial potential to cause harm and division.

Follow-up Plea to AAUP Labelled as “Spam”

Mass sent this article to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), seeking to end this freedom-crushing exercise in thought control.

It ended up as spam.

AAUP’s mission is to protect faculty freedom, and it played an important role in protesting the loyalty statements and restrictions on faculty speech during the late 40s and 50s. UW AAUP refused to publish my contribution on their listserv, with the moderator calling the above message “spam.” UW AAUP has been captured by partisan activists who regularly censor viewpoints different from theirs. Ironically, their actions prove several of the points noted above.

One note: Mass is an American Meteorological Society and past Puget Sound American Meteorological Society chapter president. He is a true expert, an effective professor, and loves real science. He is hardly a “conservative extremist” (e.g., his views on “climate crisis“). How bad must the situation really be on American campuses that he has to take to a blog to offer his scathing assessment…one that appears to have been sent to the void?

My son is planning to obtain t a degree in physics, then eventually focus on an academic research career.  I pray Mass can make a difference, and soon.

For more information, here is Mass on Hold the Line podcast. In this segment, Mass discusses how wokeness has infected universities like the University of Washington and how it has affected public safety in the Pacific Northwest and across the country.

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