Arizona Universities Ditch DEI
CV NEWS FEED // Arizona’s public universities will no longer require Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) statements on their faculty job applications.
Goldwater Institute, a free-market public policy research and litigation organization, found earlier this year that a high number of faculty job postings at Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University required applicants to provide diversity statements as a condition of hiring.
The Institute reported that the University of Arizona required a diversity statement for 28% of its job postings as of fall 2022. Northern Arizona University required such a statement for 73% of its job postings and 81% of job postings at Arizona State University required one.
In place of traditional cover letters, the schools were requesting diversity statements, accounts of the candidate’s activism or commitment to diversity, or written endorsements of progressive concepts such as “intersectional personal identities.”
The Goldwater Institute argued that such requirements violate the First Amendment and Arizona’s constitution, which states that “no religious or political test or qualification shall ever be required as a condition of admission into any public educational institution of the state, as teacher, student, or pupil.”
Goldwater Institute senior fellow Jonathan Butcher stated that
DEI programs and “statements” do not produce free expression nor more diversity of thought, equal opportunities, and a culture that includes everyone in school activities because DEI’s guiding principles are rooted in the racially discriminatory worldview known as critical race theory.
Arizona is not the first state to eliminate DEI statements for public university job applications. The university systems or governors of North Carolina, Missouri, Florida, and Texas have all taken similar actions.
“This is a huge victory for academic freedom and the First Amendment,” said Goldwater Institute President and CEO Victor Riches.
