ASU Still Uses DEI in Hiring

After saying they stopped

The Goldwater Institute was instrumental in getting ASU to stop using DEI statements when hiring. These statements were used to determine who held the right beliefs and who did not. They were a test to determine if you had the right “groupthink.” In August 2023, ASU said it would no longer use them.

I have proof they are still used in some of the Schools and Colleges at ASU. I have the questions that are asked of candidates in a hiring process this Spring. They were asked how they would contribute to DEI. In fact, the question stated that DEI is part of the ASU charter.

ASU’s charter states three central values: access, impact, and excellence. This question for job candidates connects DEI to these values. If that is correct, it means that ASU cannot stop asking DEI questions of candidates without changing its charter. But it is not correct. “Access” does not require DEI philosophy. “Access” should reflect classical liberal values for the secular university, not the radical leftist agenda in DEI.

This is the problem. Even if universities outwardly stop using DEI language, the philosophical commitments of the administrators and professors have not changed. These same radical ideologies will still be used to shape the institution. What is needed is a foundational change to the role of these radical ideologies in the American university. Something must change, and the question is if it will change with the universities or in spite of them and away from them.

I’m not a lawyer and cannot give legal advice. But if I applied for a job at a university that said it no longer uses DEI but was asked a DEI question in the hiring process and did not get the job, I would ask for legal help. That violation of ASU’s public statement about no longer using DEI questions in hiring seems to invalidate the hiring process.