The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced that it will scrap diversity statements in hiring, eliminating the requirement for tenure-track applicants to submit what critics have decried as ideologically motivated loyalty oaths.
Dean of Faculty Affairs and Planning Nina Zipser said in an email Monday that the decision to drop the “diversity, inclusion and belonging” mandate came after feedback from “numerous faculty members” who found the statement “too narrow,” according to the Harvard Crimson.
The Harvard FAS, the university’s largest faculty organization, had previously required a statement from job candidates on their “efforts to encourage diversity, inclusion and belonging, including past, current and anticipated future contributions in these areas.”
The move comes as Harvard struggles to recover from a year in which the university faced sharp criticism of what critics said was rising campus antisemitism sentiment triggered by the Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, a climate traced to the anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian DEI culture in academia.
Last week, Harvard announced that, as an institution, it will no longer take positions on hot-button social and political issues, citing a faculty-led working group that recommended against making “official statements about public matters that do not directly affect the university’s core function.”
Public universities have rolled back their diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in response to legislation in GOP-led states, but Harvard’s decision to pull back shows that even famously liberal colleges in solidly blue states are having second thoughts about DEI.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology became the first leading private institution to dump its DEI requirement in hiring, saying last month that the “compelled statements” impinge on academic freedom and “don’t work.”
At Harvard, the diversity statement will be replaced by a more race-neutral service statement on the candidate’s “efforts to strengthen academic communities” and foster a “learning environment in which students are encouraged to ask questions and share their ideas.”
“This broader perspective acknowledges the many ways faculty contribute to strengthening their academic communities, including efforts to increase diversity, inclusion and belonging,” said Ms. Zipser in the email.
The two statements will also be required only of finalists in the hiring search. In addition, the changes apply to both “internal promotion and review procedures as well as external hiring,” the Crimson said.
The Washington Times has reached out to Harvard for comment.
Harvard’s DEI pullback was cheered by free-speech advocates like Nico Perrino, executive vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, who said Monday on X that “[t]he dominoes … continue to fall.”
Christopher Rufo, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, called it “a small victory, but a signal that our campaign is gaining momentum. We will not stop until the entire DEI apparatus is dismantled and salted over.”
In April, Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy called for abandoning the mandatory DEI pledges, saying that the statements “make me wince.”
“By requiring academics to profess — and flaunt — faith in DEI, the proliferation of diversity statements poses a profound challenge to academic freedom,” said Mr. Kennedy, who described himself as a “scholar on the left,” in the April 2 op-ed for the Crimson.
At least 159 colleges in 23 states have scaled back their DEI initiatives and requirements since January 2023, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Dismantling of DEI” tracker.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.