© UCLA Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty ImagesRoyce Hall on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles
In 2021, the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) School of Medicine — ranked fourth in the country for primary care — released a 24-page "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism Strategic Action Plan," listing dozens of "tactics" for advancing "diversity and racial equity" over the ensuing half-decade. One of those tactics reads: "Include a section in promotion packages where faculty members report on the ways they are contributing to improving DEI, anti-racism and social justice." The plan promises to "reinforce the importance of these efforts by establishing clear consequences and influences on promotion packages."
OHSU's policy represents the latest stage in the institutional entrenchment of DEI programming. Universities have long required diversity statements for faculty hiring — short essays outlining one's contributions to DEI and future plans for advancing DEI. Since it began almost a decade ago, the policy has been criticized as a thinly veiled ideological litmus test. Whether you see it as one largely depends on whether you think DEI is simply a set of corporate "best practices" like any other, or constitutes a rigid set of political and social views. In any event, the diversity statements and criteria have only expanded, and are now commonly required for promotion, tenure, and faculty evaluation.
Comment: It's rather amazing that, despite having abundant nuclear power plants, France will be experiencing power shortages at the same time as the rest of the EU due to 'maintenance issues.' It's almost as if this was timed.
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