This was another win for FIRE (The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression). May it be replicated everywhere.The College Fix reports:
UMass Boston removes DEI requirements from job listingsThe University of Massachusetts Boston will no longer require aspiring faculty members to submit “diversity, equity, and inclusion” statements following advocacy from a national free speech group.The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression told The College Fix it plans to monitor the job postings to ensure UMass Boston follows through on its promise.“I plan on watching UMass Boston’s website to ensure open faculty positions don’t again start requiring DEI commitments,” Program Officer Haley Gluhanich told The Fix via email. “FIRE will continue to have its eyes on this situation.”She said the group’s “persistence” ultimately helped sway the public university.“I think our persistence had a large part in swaying the university, especially considering we wrote it three times on this situation – we kept pushing back,” Gluhanich said. “I think the university realized we were going to do everything we could to secure the First Amendment rights for its faculty.”The group began writing to the university in June, according to a news release. One example included a computer science professor opening that required a “diversity statement that reflects experience and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”The initial letter stated, in part:
The DEI requirements for faculty applicants encroach on faculty’s First Amendment right not to adopt prescribed views. Their subjective criteria could easily also be abused to penalize applicants with minority, dissenting, or even simply nuanced views on DEI-related issues that may not dovetail perfectly with the university’s goals. Such an outcome would lead toward the university becoming an echo chamber for its preferred views.
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