MIT Allegedly Sidestepping DEI Ban in Hiring Practices
“One big concern is that campus leaders have found a way to continue to assure ideological conformity among faculty.”
Schools aren’t taking this seriously because they think they can wait it out.
The College Fix reports:
Audit demanded after claims that MIT faculty hiring sidesteps DEI ban
Some Massachusetts Institute of Technology departments use so-called broader impact statements in the hiring process in the wake of a nearly two-year-old decision to ban mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion statements.
It’s one example of how the ideology remains part of the ecosystem at MIT, with an estimated expenditure of $25 million annually on about 50 part and full-time employees working on DEI, according to an alumnus watchdog in a presentation Tuesday.
William Frezza, founder of the MIT Free Speech Alliance, made the comments at a webinar hosted by the center-right National Association of Scholars called “DEI Reform at the Universities.”
The event was, in part, a follow up to a research report NAS published last fall that detailed DEI’s deep incursion at the venerable institution.
“We’re looking for some trustee to stand up and say, ‘Hey, maybe we should do an audit’ … looking at all the centers, and all the departments, and figure out what are we spending on DEI,” Frezza said.
One big concern is that campus leaders have found a way to continue to assure ideological conformity among faculty.
“Diversity statements are back,” Frezza said. “They’re called broader impact statements, and they’re being used as a screen to hire faculty. Someone needs to investigate this.”
Frezza spoke on behalf of himself and not the alliance at the webinar.
In May 2024, MIT pledged to ban DEI statements in hiring. But an MIT source told The College Fix via email Wednesday that, in fact, some departments do use the broader impact statements in the same sort of way DEI statements were used, corroborating Frezza’s webinar comments.
He said they “changed last year from Diversity to Broader Impact Statements after President [Sally] Kornbluth announced that MIT would no longer have diversity statements for faculty hire.”
Asked how they are the same as DEI statements, he said: “Because faculty candidates are not stupid.”
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