Harvard University will no longer require job applicants to submit diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements, the Harvard Crimson reported Monday.
The Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) made this decision in response to feedback from faculty members. Dean of Faculty Affairs and Planning Nina Zipser wrote in an email that the requirements occasionally became unclear to applicants and proved “too narrow in the information they attempted to gather.”
FAS allegedly used to require applicants provide examples of their “efforts to encourage diversity, inclusion, and belonging, including past, current, and anticipated future contributions in these areas.” Now, it will no longer require job applicants to submit diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements, according to the Harvard Crimson.
Following substantial scrutiny of its commitment to DEI initiatives, the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) will now require a “service statement” focused on “efforts to strengthen academic communities” and a teaching statement emphasizing the creation of a “learning environment in which students are encouraged to ask questions and share their ideas,” according to the Harvard Crimson.
This shift comes after criticism from Randall Kennedy, a professor at Harvard Law School, who condemned mandatory DEI statements in an April editorial, calling for their immediate abandonment.
In May, the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) advocated strongly for awarding degrees to 13 seniors facing disciplinary action due to their participation in a pro-Palestine demonstration on campus. In an open letter addressed to Interim President Alan Garber, the staff asserted that the students had committed no wrongdoing.
“We, the undersigned Harvard faculty and staff, are alarmed that Harvard undergraduate students who engaged in peaceful protest are being sanctioned in an unprecedented, disproportionate, and arbitrary manner compared to students engaging in similar acts of civil disobedience in Harvard’s history,” the letter reads. “These sanctions undermine trust. Students and faculty acted based on the widespread understanding that the university would facilitate prompt graduation, as had been stated in direct communications from the President.”
