I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: academia is trash.

As a child of academics, a former academic married to a former academic, and a good friend to many academics I am allowed to say that. It is like members of an ethnic group can joke about each other, right?

I’m going with that.

In any case, the latest example of the decline of academia comes from one of the great institutions of learning in all of history: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An amazing place–my mother actually attended there before transferring to Harvard/Radcliffe. (She was 16, by the way, to brag on her). The world would be a poorer place both intellectually and economically were MIT to disappear.

Unfortunately the good folks at MIT don’t seem to believe that, as they are sacrificing intellectual rigor and competence in the name of “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” Applicants for faculty positions are now required to submit DEI statements as part of the application process, and the university has made clear that their considerations in evaluating applicants will be as discriminating regarding DEI matters as intellectual ones.

Discrimination is the name of the game, both intellectually and ideologically these days. Be discriminating! A new motto.

First of all: a hat tip to Evolution is True, who alerted me to the story. Unlike the MSM I like to give credit where it is due, rather than just steal the story and claim it is my own. (Bastards!–they stole a story from Alpha News yesterday without crediting them. I borrowed it while crediting them, as one should!).

MIT is now requiring “Diversity Statements” in applications to become faculty at the institution, and now they have helpfully provided a template for how they would like the statements be formatted and what kind of content they would like to see. Mind you, they don’t want you to just mouth the appropriate words–they want cult-like adherence to their ideological program.

They helpfully tell you: “A diversity statement alone is unlikely to get you an interview or a job offer, but a well-written diversity statement may enable you to stand out among a large pool of qualified candidates.”

They outline the criteria they are looking for:

A successful faculty application diversity statement…

1. demonstrates knowledge of challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
2. outlines your track record of working with diverse groups of people and advancing DEI.
3. concretely discusses what you will do as a faculty member to actively encourage DEI and belonging within your group, department, and community.
4. follows the instructions provided with the job posting (if applicable).

So in order to apply for a job there you need to immerse yourself in the DEI ideology and be able to regurgitate it for them. You also must already have been a successful and active anti-racist monster, and have plans to spread the propaganda far and wide. Who needs a working knowledge of physics or chemistry when you have antiracism down pat?

Jerry Coyne at “Evolution is True” explains:

. . . in reality, in some places like Berkeley, if your diversity statement isn’t up to muster you have no chance of getting a job, no matter how good your academic qualifications are (see here and here). And since you have to talk about efforts you have made in the past to increase diversity, as well as your philosophy of diversity, you have to start doing social-justice work well before you intend to apply for jobs. Woe to those students who have immersed themselves wholly in quantum mechanics or classical literature out of the love of the field and of knowledge. Without a track record in promoting diversity, as well as a philosophy of diversity, those people are doomed.

MIT is very clear about what they are looking for, and it’s not just racial diversity as you would expect. It is loyalty to an ideological cause that basically is supporting and promoting The Narrative™.

A faculty application diversity statement is NOT a document explaining how you as a candidate are diverse. While it is fine to include personal stories if they have informed how you think about diversity, this should not be the main focus of the statement. Rather, a diversity statement is an opportunity to show that you care about the inclusion of many forms of identity in academia and in your field, including but not limited to gender, race/ethnicity, age, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, and ability status.

As such, a diversity statement should not focus on your own experience but rather your intentions as a professor. It should demonstrate that you are familiar with the importance of DEI issues, outline your experience working with diverse groups and advancing DEI, and identify ways that you will use your position as a leader in your field to have an impact within your community.

MIT definitely hits all the right notes, although they should have included some reference to preferred pronouns, adjectives, and a commitment to send some quota of students to surgical mutilation and sterilization. Maybe also a commitment to force their students to eat bugs and commit suicide at some point.

You have to prove your commitment not only in the future but also have been a committed Narrative™ warrior in the past. I hope that this was all part of the applicants’ prior curriculum because otherwise this will thin the herd by quite a bit. I wonder what a 50 year-old chemist or physicist who has been toiling in the lab would have to put down in these statements? Or are they already inducted into the Elite™ so there would be a grandfather clause?

It is not sufficient to demonstrate knowledge about diversity, equity, and inclusion; your statement should also show experience with them. While this need not be a separate section, your statement should make it clear that you have not only thought about DEI in the abstract but have applied that knowledge and are prepared to continue doing so in the future.

You get the gist: MIT is more concerned with promoting the current Thing™ than doing actual science and teaching. It is devastating to see, given how vital MIT has been to American progress in both science and economic prominence.

Of course MIT is hardly alone in going down the path of destroying academic rigor and usefulness to society. The entirety of the profession has gone woke and is destroying everything that made American higher ed worthwhile. Take, for instance, this UCSD professor’s approach to teaching:

Professor at @UCSanDiego says she automatically gives all students A’s because she wants to decolonize her classroom. Grading is now a form of colonization pic.twitter.com/ch74gEXxfR

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 29, 2022

In a normal world she would be fired on the spot, but of course she will be lauded by her peers for her approach to “education.” Because woke.

It is all so dispiriting. Not just because it is just one more example of how wokery is destroying The West, but because as far as I can imagine it is irreversible. Conservatives and normal liberals will have to build up parallel institutions, and competing with the established ones who collectively have trillions of dollars and institutional support will be terribly difficult.

You can’t exactly vote these people out, and you can’t even fire a tenured professor without obvious cause. And who in the administrations would want to?

When I see these things I despair.