Jan
8
2024

Look What You Made Me Do

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I haven't muted anybody—in fact, there's an NYT link below—but I've turned my skepticism up to an all-time high.

On a related issue (and aren't they all related issues these days): If you haven't read the new book by Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott. you should. Cover image (an Amazon link) at your right. And the current print issue of Reason has an article adapted from it to whet your appetite: Universities Use DEI Statements To Enforce Groupthink.

Since 2014, an unprecedented number of college professors have been targeted, punished, or fired for what they said, published, or taught. Meanwhile, colleges and universities are becoming even less ideologically diverse than they already were. Professors around the country are reporting their speech chilled in an increasingly homogenous environment.

While you might expect universities to respond to this issue by making efforts to mitigate groupthink, the opposite has occurred. Over the past several years universities across the country have decided that it's time to add DEI statements as part of the hiring and review process.

And while some argue that DEI statements are not litmus tests, we think that defies common sense and the evidence in front of us. Take this statement from Vassar College's Office of the Dean of the Faculty:All department and program hiring for tenure-track and multi-year faculty positions are requesting all candidates to submit a diversity statement:

"This statement should provide the candidate's unique perspective on their past and present contributions to and future aspirations for promoting diversity, inclusion, and social justice in their professional career. The purpose of the diversity statement is to help departments and programs identify candidates who have professional experience, intellectual commitments, and/or willingness to engage in activities that could help the College contribute to its mission in these areas."

Even if you completely agree with the importance of DEI, there really isn't any reason to ask a potential physics professor, for example, to discuss their prior, past, and future "intellectual commitments" to "social justice." That is, unless you're looking to test their political outlook as a condition for their employment. The purpose of DEI statements is obvious, and professors themselves know it.

I don't think the University Near Here requires diversity statements for all hires, but it does for some. If UNH doesn't get rid of these volunarily, the legislature should get into the act.

Also of note:

  • Don't say Gay? Unfortunately, we've been saying it a lot lately. Today is no exception, as Tunku Varadarajan interviews a major Gayophobe: Harvard, Claudine Gay and the Education of Bill Ackman. Observations on DEI:

    “I think diversity, equity, inclusion are wonderful things, OK?” Mr. Ackman says. “Small ‘d,’ small ‘e,’ small ‘i.’ But when you capitalize them in turning into a movement, the way that it’s applied at places like Harvard, it’s not about true diversity, equity and inclusion.” He concedes that “it takes, frankly, a little bit of study to understand this. I’m not up on campus. I didn’t understand the details, the implementation, and the philosophical backdrop.” He likens DEI to ESG—environmental, social and governance, self-righteous nostrums by which many corporations abide. “Well-intentioned movements like ESG can have catastrophic consequences for the world. Europe’s loss of energy independence was a contributing factor in Putin having the confidence to invade Ukraine.”

    The reaction from anti-Ackman forces: Hey, let's go after this guy's wife!

  • But was Claudine Gay driven out because she was black? John McWhorter answers (and incidentally shows why you shouldn't block the NYT): Claudine Gay Was Not Driven Out Because She Is Black.

    As both Gay and Harvard note, she received openly racist hate mail. This is repulsive. But however awful it must have been for Gay to endure their abuse, those people did not force her resignation.

    Nor does it seem that Gay was ousted on the basis of her race in the aftermath of her Dec. 5 testimony before Congress on the topic of antisemitism on campus. Of three university presidents who attended, only one resigned under duress shortly after the hearing, and she — Liz Magill of Penn — was white.

    No, the charge that ultimately led to Gay’s resignation was plagiarism, of which more than 40 alleged examples were ultimately unearthed. And plagiarism and related academic charges have of course also brought down white people at universities many times. Ward Churchill was fired from the University of Colorado for academic misconduct, including plagiarism, in 2007 in the wake of his controversially assailing people working in the World Trade Center towers on 9/11 as “little Eichmanns.” The president of the University of South Carolina, Robert Caslen, resigned thanks to a plagiarism episode in 2021. And the president of Stanford, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, resigned due to questions of data manipulation just last July.

    It should be pointed out that not only is Tessier-Lavigne white, the event that triggered the attack dogs was his apology to a shouted-down conservative judge.

  • Just a reminder. And it's from Michael R. Strain: Trump’s Protectionism Would Spike Prices.

    Former president Trump likes to attack President Biden’s record on inflation. For example, last month in New Hampshire, Trump said: “Biden’s inflation catastrophe is demolishing your savings and ravaging your dreams.”

    It is ironic, then, that two of Trump’s signature 2024 campaign promises — a massive increase in tariffs and a massive reduction in immigration — would also cause prices to spike.

    Trump has floated creating “a ring around the U.S. economy” by imposing a blanket 10 percent tariff on all imports to the U.S. This would directly raise the prices of trillions of dollars of imports, eroding the purchasing power of consumers’ wages and incomes. It would raise the prices of intermediate goods for U.S.-based firms, which would lead to further price increases for American consumers. And it would lead to retaliatory tariffs from other nations, causing further price hikes.

    Speaking of irony, I got one of those anti-Haley mailers from the Trump campaign zinging Nikki Haley for "high taxes", specifically sales tax. They don't seem to realize the effect of tariffs on the price of stuff.


Last Modified 2024-01-09 5:55 AM EDT