Files Show UC-Berkeley Ranked Faculty Applicants Based on Their Support for DEI Policies

Files Show UC-Berkeley Ranked Faculty Applicants Based on Their Support for DEI Policies

Files obtained by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), show that the University of California, Berkeley, ranked faculty applicants based on their support for DEI policies.

This supports the claim by many critics that this is precisely what DEI is intended to do, to act as a filter to keep away those who don’t support these policies.

Professor Jonathan Turley writes:

The Berkeley Files: Faculty Applicants Were Ranked on Their Support for DEI Policies and Practices

After years of resisting demands under the Public Records Act (including alleged violations), UC Berkeley has finally turned over documents to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) on its hiring criteria. The files show that Berkeley has been grading faculty on their commitment to DEI, including viewpoints that should be protected by free speech or academic privileges.

In 2018, Berkeley’s life sciences departments launched an initiative to advance faculty diversity that included requiring candidates to submit statements on their “contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion,” including information about their “understanding of these topics,” “record of activities to date,” and “specific plans and goals for advancing equity and inclusion.”

I have no problem with candidates being asked about diversity values and other university priorities. Indeed, I believe that candidates should be asked about their tolerance for opposing views and commitment to free speech. Diversity, free speech, and other values are important elements for higher education.

However, Berkeley went beyond that inquiry and graded candidates on their espousing specific viewpoints that many academics may disagree with for intellectual or ideological reasons.

The long withheld documents indicate that candidates would be given lower scores if they “discount the importance of diversity.”

FIRE notes the difficulty involved in obtaining these records:

The university expects all new faculty hires to “be committed to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging[.]” During the 2018-19 academic year, Berkeley’s life sciences departments launched an initiative to advance faculty diversity. As part of the initiative, applicants for full-time faculty positions were required to submit statements on their “contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion,” including information about their “understanding of these topics,” “record of activities to date,” and “specific plans and goals for advancing equity and inclusion.”

These statements informed the hiring committee’s first round of review: If applicants’ contributions to DEI did not meet a high standard, they were eliminated from consideration.

FIRE wanted to know more. So in March 2021, we filed a public records request seeking information related to how, exactly, the university was using and evaluating these diversity statements.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited.

Two years later, Berkeley still hadn’t handed over the records.

California’s Public Records Act requires that public agencies make records “promptly available.” Berkeley finally produced the records in May 2023 after FIRE sent a demand letter threatening legal action. It took Berkeley 795 days to comply with its duty under the act. Hardly prompt.

It’s amazing to think today that the free speech movement began at Berkeley.

Things sure have changed.

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