MIT eliminates diversity statements in faculty hiring
On May 5, the President Sally Kornbluth announced that the Institute will no longer include diversity statements as part of the application process for faculty appointments. The move to eliminate such statements for hiring is purportedly the first amongst elite universities.
Quoted in The New York Times, Kornbluth said that “diversity statements constituted a form of compelled speech that do not work.”
“My goals are to tap into the full scope of human talent, to bring the very best to M.I.T. and to make sure they thrive once here,” Kornbluth said. “We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work.”
The MIT administration did respond to a request for comment by the Tech at the time of this writing.