Texas Tech is reviewing its hiring practices as diversity efforts come under fire

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Texas Tech University officials say they are reviewing their hiring processes after a conservative education advocacy group criticized how the university’s biology department evaluates job applicants’ commitment to diversity, fairness and inclusion.

According to documents obtained by the National Association of Scientists at the Open Records Request and posted online on Monday, the Texas Institute of Technology biology department used the rubric to evaluate finalists’ track record, understanding and plans to improve DEI on campus, and other qualifications such as research. quality, teaching experience and letters of recommendation.

In a statement Tuesday, the university said it would remove DEI evaluation rubrics if they were identified in other departments’ recruiting practices.

“TXT faculty recruitment practices will always emphasize disciplinary excellence and applicants’ ability to support our priorities of student success, effective scholarship, and community engagement,” the statement said.

As institutions of higher education have made commitments to building more inclusive and diverse campuses, it has become commonplace for universities to ask job applicants about their positions on diversity, equity and inclusion policies, as well as their experience of working with diverse student groups such as colored people. , people with disabilities, veterans and LGBTQ people.

But in recent months, those efforts have become a new target for conservatives who see them as discriminatory. This week, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office sent out a letter to government agencies and public universities directing them that it is illegal to consider diversity, equality and inclusion when hiring.

During a Texas Senate Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday, Texas Tech University System Chancellor Tedd Mitchell said the situation in the biology department is not university-wide policy.

“I don’t believe in any litmus tests,” Mitchell told the committee. “It is no longer appropriate to ask them whether they are Christians or Muslims. When we know something like this has happened, we stop it.”

Meanwhile, University of Houston system president Renu Hathor told the committee she viewed the letter from the governor’s office as a “reminder” about how her university system should handle hiring.

“Reminders are always good,” she said. “We have every search committee instructed … “here are the laws”, “here is how they do not discriminate” – this is very clear to them.

Hathor added that the university system is working to encourage a wide variety of candidates to apply for open positions.

But members of the Texas Black Caucus criticized Abbott’s position.

“Many of our higher education institutions and government agencies rely on the use of DEI initiatives to work in tandem with anti-discrimination laws to ensure they do not make hiring decisions based on race, religion, or gender. To hire the best, you first need a diverse pool of applicants,” Missouri Rep. Ron Reynolds wrote in a statement. “Abandoning DEI initiatives will only hurt Texas institutions.”

Efforts to assess the commitment of candidates for DEI jobs may include diversity statements in which candidates are asked to write about their experiences with diverse student groups and how they plan to help students from all walks of life succeed, and are becoming increasingly popular with universities . across the country over the past decade. Most universities in the University of California system require applicants to write a letter outlining their diversity efforts. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign requires a diversity statement for those applying for tenure.

DEI’s higher education initiatives also go beyond hiring. Over the past few years, especially since the killing of George Floyd in 2020, which ushered in a nationwide reckoning for racial inequality, Texas universities have made extra efforts to increase student diversity on campus through initiatives such as additional scholarship funds.

Most universities in Texas have offices dedicated to helping underrepresented students stay in school and graduate. Many schools post diversity, fairness and inclusion statements on their websites.

However, Republican leaders over the past few years have spoken out against some policies designed to encourage diversity and academic disciplines focused on race and ethnicity. DEI and critical racial theory — an academic framework that studies how racism manifests itself in a nation’s laws and institutions — have been targeted by conservatives who claim that white people are unfairly treated or characterized in schools and at work.

Many conservatives view DEI statements as requiring candidates to subscribe to ideological litmus tests.

“The DEI score in hiring almost inevitably screens candidates based on their political and social views. Anyone who opposes, say, racial preferences in hiring or recruitment would likely violate the Texas Tech rubric,” wrote John Siler, a National Association of Scientists staffer who first published the Tech recruitment papers. institute.

The hiring process, which is under scrutiny at Tech, began in the fall of 2021 when Tech’s biology department posted four assistant professor positions.

According to documents released by the National Association of Scientists, each candidate met with three members of the department’s DEI committee. The documents show that the committee weighed each nominee’s strengths and weaknesses in relation to their understanding of DEI’s efforts, their own experiences, and their plans to contribute to efforts to develop diverse, inclusive, and fair practices at the university.

In general, the documents show that the committee considered it an advantage if the candidate’s research was related to the DEI, if they were interested in helping students, or if they demonstrated an understanding of potential financial barriers that could prevent students from succeeding.

The Committee considered it a weakness if candidates did not understand the difference between diversity, equality and inclusion; or if they lacked the understanding that students with difficulty may not seek help. The committee called it a weakness that one candidate repeatedly referred to professors as “he”, which interviewers perceived as a microaggression towards female faculty members.

At a committee hearing on Wednesday, Senate Treasury Chairwoman Senator Joan Huffman of Houston, who raised concerns about the biology department’s practices, said she expects DEI deliberations to continue during the current legislative session.

“My goal to bring this up today and start a discussion is to let the universities know that budgeters are paying attention to this,” she said.

Disclosure: Texas Tech University, the Texas Tech University System, and the University of Houston provided financial support to The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial sponsors play no role in Tribune journalism. Find their complete list here.

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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