| Do you really know this to be true, though? Well yeah, because the concept of a "diversity statement", let alone of a DEIB, did not exist at the time. And that's the topic of discussion here -- whether these mandatory affirmative statements are necessary, or even helpful. Not "discussions in faculty meetings" (which of can be effective). But these precious mandatory affirmative statements, as judged and scored by these boards with their (as you seem to acknowledge) apparently unknowable criteria. I'm just going to address one more snippet of what you said, then I'm going to have to bail: The reason why it's seen as "wrong" by the DEIB office at Berkeley is because from experience we as a profession have found it leads to instructors with attitudes like "I don't care that Timmy has a learning disability, he has to take the test for the same 45 minutes as the other students!" We keep going back in circles, here. You seem to just assume, prima facie, the effectiveness of these statements: that candidates with "weak" affirmative diversity statements -- as judged their spouting what you deem to be "empty platitudes", and for their failure to emit who knows what positive signals you or whoever is sitting on the DEI board that year is looking for -- are basically childish, self-centered jerks (who wouldn't already be revealing these traits by other means). And that that requiring "strong" affirmative statements somehow protects the university community against the encroachment of these childish, self-centered jerks. Who might just not immediately agree with whatever accessibility guidelines come down the pipe (in regard to students with disabilities) -- but would become become obstructionist, and start to pout and stomp their feet, as you hyberbolize: "I don't care what guidelines say! I'm going to run my class the way I see fit!" I don't know what higher plane of reality you inhabit such that you feel confident you can draw a causative association between a candidate's making a statement like "I treat everyone equally" -- and their being disposed of that kind of behavior. But I maintain that is, at best... a gut-level association -- kind of like "I know their kind", "I know them when I see them". That is to say: at best, a very tenuous association -- and at worst, a stereotype. And an ideologically-driven one at that. Which indicates, ironically, a lack of depth of understanding of cognitive ... diversity. That's how I see it. You can see it otherwise of course, and that's perfectly fine. I do need to move on though, and call it a day with this thread. You are extremely even-tempered and civil (much more so than I), but as the other commenter pointed out, this thread has gotten way too long, and is now way past its expiration date. |
What I was saying is that diversity initiatives, training, seminars, workshops, and all the various activities that are now concentrated in the DEIB office have been going on for quite some time at different levels in the University. Offices of diversity haven't always been around, but similar efforts have always existed. Maybe your instructors haven't written a DEI statement, but surely they have engaged in the activities one would write about in a DEI statement. Every member of the faculty has.
> You seem to just assume, prima facie, the effectiveness of these statements
The statements are most effective in focusing candidates to answer questions about diversity during the interview.
> their failure to emit who knows what positive signals you or whoever is sitting on the DEI board that year is looking for
The "positive signals" we are looking for are specificity. We just want examples. What have you done specifically? What do you plan to do specifically? Otherwise, yeah, they're platitudes.
> are basically childish, self-centered jerks
I'm sorry I probably overstated Berkeley's intention with their rubric, as I'm not a part of Berkeley and had no hand in writing it, but I just had some specific instances in mind when I that this. I will say I've read a lot of statements that say something to the effect of "I treat everyone equally" and I've had a lot of discussions with those candidates. It usually turns out that after a probing discussion, their actual position is much more measured. The "I treat everyone equally" absolutists I've come across have actually ended their careers in self immolation. And I mean, they were hired in the first place, so their statement didn't even affect their candidacy, but I will say their attitude lead to problems.
> You are extremely even-tempered and civil
It comes from dealing with teenagers all day. Cheers!