University fails to impose DEI requirements
A proposed revision to the University of Washington’s faculty code requiring professors to commit to diversity, equity, and inclusion has failed to pass the Seattle institution's faculty senate.
Sixty-six percent of the vote was needed for the proposal to pass, but it acquired only 63%.
A proposed revision to the University of Washington’s faculty code requiring professors to commit to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has failed to pass the Seattle institution’s faculty senate.
Faculty must “submit a statement about their own contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] when being considered for promotion and tenure,” the proposal stated.
Sixty-six percent of the vote was needed for the proposal to pass, but it acquired only 63%.
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To justify the proposal, the Seattle-based faculty cited examples of DEI requirements for promotion and hiring from other colleges and universities, including the University of California system campuses and the University of Oregon.
The University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) was one such example. At UC Berkeley, contributions to DEI figure prominently both in hiring and promotion decisions.
UC Berkeley’s DEI rubric for candidate hires assigns the lowest score possible to candidates that seem “not to be aware of, or understand the personal challenges that underrepresented individuals face in academia, or feel any personal responsibility for helping to create an equitable and inclusive environment for all.”
Despite the proposal’s failure to pass, faculty senate chairs at the University of Washington declared that they would continue attempts to “center” DEI values in the promotion and tenure decisions, The College Fix reports.
Campus Reform reached out to the University of Washington for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.
