Do you know something we don't as to how they're being scrutinized?

The word itself is politically loaded but people aren't necessarily judged on the answer they arrive at... it could very reasonably be a way of testing how they arrived at the answer.

There's almost no question they can give that wouldn't be controversial in some respect - at least none that would an interesting test of a persons capacity to reason their way through the issue.

If a school asked for you to explain your commitment to liberty, would you assume the opposite bias?

To see what criteria they're evaluating the essays on we'd have to actually look at essays that were deemed acceptable and ones that were rejected.

Staunchly disagree. Why would a university want to hire a faculty member who views white male students as prejudicially preferable?

I have no idea why you guys are trying to argue for or against something Kelhus has described in the vaguest possible terms.

But I absolutely disagree with your last sentence. How someone will interact with their students and peers seems like it's useful information to a prospective employer. The degree to which right wing ref-working has managed to make "being extremely racist" a protected class while still managing to argue that we should leave the treatment of actual protected classes up to the market is a towering monument to how godawful our pundit class is.

University professors have a duty to treat all their students, regardless of race, fairly and equally. Doing that doesn't require a commitment to diversity. The university should imo be able to ask the candidate if they can commit to that duty before hiring them. They should also be able to say that the university is committed to diversity as a value and so expects a new hire to follow guidelines relevant to furthering that value. I just don't think they should be inquiring about the applicant's personal commitment to diversity as a value. There could be exceptions - plausibly some disciplines require a more robust set of moral norms, including diversity, but I think it is wrong to require it for all disciplines.

Also I googled a little bit to try to figure out what the **** Kelhus is talking about and if I found what he's mad about, and I think I did, hoo boy OP are you gonna feel like a ****ing mark. You showed your ass like this based on the words of a multiple-perma-banned open racist. Giving him the benefit of the doubt was maybe not wise!

I'm very excited here, because this is a spot where I get to use the "I don't know what's going on here, I haven't read anything about it but I have ideas" card that so many of our friends in P&S here use all the time, so here goes:

I don't know anything about this, but I think academia shoudln't hire racist *******s.

Uh, what?

What are you even blathering about? There is a college professor who replied in this thread and said he has written and evaluated diversity statements for faculty job applications, and he is fine with them. It certainly isn't a mystery what I am talking about to him.

This is a higher education thread. Your ignorance about what goes on in higher education isn't really my problem, and shouldn't be. You are acting like you just discovered fire, and the rest of us have been sitting by the campfire discussing the best way to roast marshmallows.

Yeah, that would be too diverse.

It is not necessary that you value diversity itself in order to treat your diverse students with respect, dignity, fairness, equality, etc.

With no hyperbole, I believe that in today's current climate, if you were a college professor and went on the record as this being your position; you would very likely find yourself on the wrong end of a mob of student activists calling you racist and demanding you be fired; and this might very well be the outcome depending on your willingness to atone and walk it back.

A diversity statement asserting your intention to treat diverse students with respect, dignity, fairness and equality would be quite standard from those I've seen. I'm not quite sure what type of person you are describing that doesn't "value diversity" but nevertheless treats their diverse students equally, however it doesn't really matter what you have in mind from the perspective of banging out a few paragraphs in a diversity statement since they can just say the later.

A lot of theists and atheists don’t “value diversity” in regard to their respective beliefs. Sure they mostly tolerate opposing beliefs but nonetheless they still believe society would be better off without people holding such diverse beliefs.

What the **** are you talking about? Yeah, man, diversity statements. "What would you bring to Caltech" type ****. Completely noncontroversial except to like, people so racist that the word "diversity" triggers them into a fit by reminding them of the existence of gays and nonwhites.

I don't see the inner workings of higher education ever having any sort of direct impact on your life, Kelhus. Why don't you just ignore it?

OK, yes, it does. Treating those people with respect is a commitment to diversity! Whether or not they have that duty is quite literally the subject at issue.

I love how when these dudes put on their Professor Calipers hat their most charitable defense of conservatives is that of course they could put aside their inherent hatred of others while on the clock. Lot of people get real mad when you imply anything untoward about conservatives and race/gender/sexual orientation, but they cannot wait to come tell on themselves when given the appropriate writing prompt.

In its own way, this thread was a really good example of why diversity statements do provide valuable information to employers lol.

I'm sure this is your view, but I don't agree.

I'm trying to be as literal as possible: some people just don't care about diversity - it isn't important to them. That doesn't necessarily mean that they treat people with a different ethnic, race, or gender identity from their own poorly. They plausibly have other values that would require them to treat them with respect for other reasons. Maybe they are religious and believe it is a command of God to do so. Maybe they hold some kind of individualistic ethic that views communal identities as unimportant, but requires treating all individuals equally with respect. Maybe they view themselves as having a duty as a teacher to treat all their students equally. Valuing diversity is only one way to get to an ethic of treating diverse students with respect.

Defining what 'valuing diversity' means is unclear but to think that someone who doesn't value diversity is automatically going to treat people unequally requires a very specific definition that seems kind of unreasonable.

Nah, man, we all have a pretty clear idea what they’re getting at.

That's why it's an essay, not a "do you value diversity" Y/N question.

I think I follow you. I'm not really sure I know enough about diversity statements in university hiring to tell if they are distinguishing between "asking the candidate if they can commit to the duty of treating students fairly" and "personal commitment to diversity as a value." I wouldn't be opposed to the university trying to make that distinction and I can see why you think it would be better to draw the line at the first, but I also just don't see a huge problem if the CA university system is in fact asking for the latter.

I guess part of it for me is it doesn't feel that different than any other employer having a vision and mission and trying to get employees who buy into it. There's probably some point at which I would think having these kinds of requirements could be overbearing (like if the federal government required all academics to sign a legally binding pledge, or something) but it's not clear to me that this is really that burdensome or onerous for faculty in CA, even ones who might not really buy in to the vision entirely.

Y'all answered this like he was serious. LOL, you weren't serious, right Kelhus? Hahaha, of course not. That's funny as hell, man.

I'm not sure what's happening in CA but that seems to be consistent with the times we live in. We have something similar in canada from the ontario law society, who control your ability to hold a license to practice law. They require members to prepare a written statement.

That is equity ideology
What would harvard describe as a commitment to diversity?

What would google describe as a serious commitment to diversity?

If there's plenty of departments that have marxists greatly outnumbering conservatives (which is real) do you think these CA schools would be excited to see someone creating some viewpoint "diversity"? How about some viewpoint diversity that has a closer representation to society?

Since it's a place of learning and "diversity is our strength" do you think they are committed to viewpoint diversity or is it just another aesthetic form like skin color?
It's also compelled speech to some extent and authoritarian

What do you think is a serious commitment to diversity?

How is it compelled speech?