Author: John Sailer

John Sailer is a senior fellow at the National Association of Scholars. Follow him on Twitter @JohnDSailer.

Ohio State Main University building.

Ohio State University Dodges DEI Scrutiny

Until recently, on its faculty hiring page, Ohio State University’s (OSU) College of Arts and Sciences listed a form called the “Faculty Search Diversity Recruitment Report.” The document describes itself as a requirement for faculty hiring in the college. Per its own instructions, search committees must send the report to their division’s dean—and the dean […]

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Documents: Miami University’s Litmus Test

On August 8, the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR), which governs Arizona’s public universities, confirmed that it has ended the use of diversity statements in faculty job applications. Common but controversial, these statements require faculty applicants to explain their past and planned contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). ABOR’s decision comes after a Goldwater Institute report showed that […]

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Psych! You Don’t Have the Job.

In January, University of Toronto psychologist Yoel Inbar interviewed for a role at UCLA. His girlfriend had received a job offer from the psychology department, and like many universities, UCLA has a dual career program designed to facilitate partner appointments. The interview went well, and as Inbar notes in a recent podcast, he thought that […]

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Litmus Tests for Nuclear Scientists

Ohio State University’s (OSU) College of Engineering heavily emphasizes diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). For faculty, contributing to DEI is now simply a part of the job—in 2020, the college added questions about DEI to its annual reviews. That move is no surprise, as the college already asked for diversity statements from many of its […]

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Documents: Mizzou Imposes DEI Litmus Test

Earlier this month, I published an article in the Wall Street Journal exposing how Texas Tech University’s Department of Biological Sciences evaluated job candidates’ contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The department’s evaluations—which I uncovered through a public records request—showed how candidates were penalized for failing to adopt the language of contemporary identity politics. […]

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Research, Teaching, and DEI

Diversity statements—short essays that express one’s past contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and future plans to advance the cause—have become ubiquitous in academia. As I’ve written before, many universities embrace these requirements not only for faculty hiring but also for all levels of employment. And in a recent piece for the Wall Street […]

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Faculty-Packing at Ohio State

The Ohio State University is currently seeking a professor of “Philosophy of Race,” an area of expertise that includes “the epistemological significance of race or racism” and “race in the philosophy of science.” Its Department of Physics seeks a professor whose main focus is “issues relevant to educational equity.” And its Department of Anthropology recently […]

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No Place for Hate

Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League released an “interim definition” of racism, after its 2020 definition was widely criticized. That earlier definition held that racism is the “marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.” Of course, if this were accurate, countless instances of racial […]

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