Higher Education Reportedly Using Practice of ‘Cluster Hiring’ to Advance DEI Agenda
“In order to achieve its stated goals, DEI cluster hiring must include a host of additional interventions—in particular, a heavy reliance on diversity statements and a narrow focus on ethnicity or the themes of identity politics.”
Higher education’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion runs deep. DEI has become big business on campus and lots of people are raking in serious money based on these policies.
According to journalist John D. Sailer, some schools are now using a practice known as cluster hiring to advance this agenda.
He writes at the National Association of Scholars:
Diversity Statement, Then Dossier
The term “cluster hiring” is not itself new. DEI cluster hiring appropriates an established form of faculty recruitment that has a long history, especially in the natural sciences, where it meant the coordinated hiring of faculty members in several departments to work on a shared research topic. This older form of cluster hiring made and still makes sense because contemporary scientific research can require the combination of several kinds of expertise.
But DEI cluster hiring serves no such purpose. Consider, for example, the following job listings.
- The Ohio State University’s Department of Mathematics is recently saught a professor who will “study issues relevant to educational equity across STEM fields, with a special focus on race and other factors identifying historically marginalized groups.”1
- The University of California, Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare is hiring a professor who “may focus on anti-blackness in the US and the African Diaspora: abolition studies, critical race approaches to data science and mapping, anti-racism and anti-blackness, racial capitalism, trans/queer/feminist theory, and critical disability studies among others.”2
- The University of Michigan’s School of Nursing recently sought “more faculty with expertise in health equity and anti-racism and social justice methodologies.”3
These listings, and hundreds more like them, illustrate a growing trend in higher education. Universities now frequently recruit faculty with professional specialties in race, gender, social justice, and the broad gamut of critical theories. But the above jobs also share another characteristic: they are all a part of cluster hiring initiatives devoted explicitly to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In order to achieve its stated goals, DEI cluster hiring must include a host of additional interventions—in particular, a heavy reliance on diversity statements and a narrow focus on ethnicity or the themes of identity politics. These additional interventions transform cluster hiring into a means to embed DEI further into the fabric of the university, by creating dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of new faculty positions focused solely on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
This is a long article but worth reading in full. Sailer uses real examples of schools using this practice in hiring to ensure that more hires were women and minorities despite having fewer applicants in those categories.
Describing how Emory University approaches cluster hiring, an associate dean of faculty put it simply: “Diversity statement, then dossier.”
In my new @NASorg report, I explain DEI cluster hiring—a tool of choice for many universities across the country.
A quick thread. pic.twitter.com/BMYs8DQg8z
— John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) September 19, 2023
“Cluster hiring” sounds a bit unsavory, but most basically, it involves hiring multiple faculty across different fields at the same time.
Over the past few years, it has been touted as a tool to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
How exactly does that work? pic.twitter.com/6WNdE49LoD
— John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) September 19, 2023
In either one of two ways.
First, through a heavy emphasis on job applicant diversity statements (or “DEI contributions”).
The paradigmatic example: UC Berkeley’s Life Sciences Initiative, which weeded out roughly 600 of 800 candidates solely on the basis of DEI statements. pic.twitter.com/z9D521Viev
— John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) September 19, 2023
The other way cluster hiring promotes DEI is by emphasizing a DEI-related theme.
Such as "Designing Just Futures," "The Racialized Body," or "Indigenous Studies."
Predictably, many of these job ads are filled with the language of identity politics. (See last photo.) pic.twitter.com/DUx5aD2SFp
— John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) September 19, 2023
This is reminiscent of what has happened with Affirmative Action. When higher education likes a policy, they find a way to implement it.
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Comments
There is an immediate problem that our youth have many young people ready for college and few suitable colleges left. I assume that demand will drive new institutions, but how long will that take?
our youth have many young people ready for college
Citing facts not in evidence.
At least not if you define :ready for college” as “have actually learned the necessary basics from K-12.”
I am not talking a suitable for college, I am concerned that the colleges are unsuitable.
It’s a cluster____, that’s for sure. Need to trace this back to the grant process, following the money usually works.
I assume that demand will drive new institutions, but how long will that take?
——————————
Beginning to look like too long.
https://andmagazine.substack.com/p/the-revolution-has-begun-and-the And The Revolutionaries Are Winning
Sam Faddis
It does not matter. The revolution is here, and it is winning.
Recently, the county library announced that it would adopt a new circulation policy. This policy would make all records of all people holding library cards confidential. No one other than the individual in question could see library records without a court order.
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The library thinks differently. At a recent public meeting held at 4 p.m. on a weekday in the small town of Hallstead, the room was filled with angry parents protesting the new policy. Speaker after speaker made clear their concerns, holding signs saying things like “Let Parents Parent”. The board paid no attention to any of the concerns voiced. In the face of overwhelming public opposition, the library board adopted the new policy.Just to make sure nobody could possibly misunderstand the import of what was happening, in making its decision the board specifically cited its desire to align itself with the policies of the American Library Association (ALA). The ALA is run by a self-described “queer Marxist”, Emily Drabinski. Ms. Drabinksi makes no secret of the fact that it is the mission of the ALA to leverage libraries to make social change. By that, she expressly means Marxist change and the destruction of the existing social order.
This is the revolution in action. No bill passed the legislature in Harrisburg. The county commissioners did not take a vote and introduce a new ordinance. A board that specifically cites its adherence to the ALA’s radical agenda simply decided that parents would no longer be able to control what their children read. Without even the semblance of a democratic process, parents have been shoved aside and children will now be provided with books pushing transgender ideology, Marxism, and the proposition that the United States of America is an inherently racist, evil creation.
The Revolution has begun. It is everywhere, and the revolutionaries are winning.
is recently saught a professor
Oof. When writing about education, an editor is helpful.
(Kinda like how an edit function for comments is helpful. *ahem* )
Yeah, I cringed when I saw that mishmash.
Wow, THREE downvotes on both comments?
I’m adding to my fan base, evidently.
STEM departments will do this to defend itself against allegations that they are racist. If a department is ninety percent white they’ll claim they’re teaching some DEI. Their alternative is to actually hire one or two minorities,
At least the diversity statement is not an immutable characteristic. I suppose if applicants wise up and look at that rubric that UC Berkeley refers to, and write accordingly, they might have a shot at at least an interview. Here I found the rubric. https://ofew.berkeley.edu/recruitment/contributions-diversity/rubric-assessing-candidate-contributions-diversity-equity
I’d recommend that anyone even applying for undergraduate admission to college read this rubric. It tells you the sort of stuff that’s most valued and what not to say in essays and interviews.
This is Dem party doctrine enforced by universities and big businesses. They will advance their agenda no matter what. .
Boys and girls, bypass that nightmare which will leave ten’s of thousands in debt, nothing of value and prepare you for nothing. Learn a trade. Welding, plumbing, electrical, mechanic etc. Go straight to Six Figures. Get your open water diving and welding…go straight to a 6 month a year job approaching $200,000
I note that Musk is hiring based on capability and not degrees. Somehow I acquired the ability to teach myself multiple disciplines, I wonder how many other people have that capability. It seems that Musk is finding many of them.
Is this the solution to useless colleges? Independent study propelled by mentors?
The Bride’s great nephew is eighteen years old. He’s in welding apprenticeship, working for a construction company, and going to tech school that’s financed by his employer. He says he wants to be a journeyman by his 20th birthday, a master by his 25th birthday. That’s allowing for delays due to distractions along the way, such as girls (I counseled caution: A high quality young woman with any maturity will wait on his time table in the interest of financial and personal security). The family is exceedingly proud of him. He’s always had his head screwed on right.
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