Unrepentant DEI at MIT | City Journal
Eventually, however, it dawned on the rebellious donors that the DEI complex was not the solution to perceived anti-Semitism but part of the problem, since the DEI apparatus enforces the progressive world view that the West (now embodied by Israel) is unremittingly racist, colonialist, and oppressive. The alumni demand for adding anti-Semitism training to the DEI portfolio of anti-hate trainings turned into its opposite: a demand that the DEI apparatus be shut down entirely. (Harvard donor Bill Ackman s conversion in this regard has been unusually public.)
It s been hard to miss this new consensus among university critics. National and state legislators, governors, and other public figures have called for the elimination of DEI administrations. Denunciation of the equity and inclusion bureaucracy is now part of every call to reform of the post October 7 university to the point that left-wing defenders of the university are railing against what they view as conservatives exploitation of the Hamas campus crisis to defund essential diversity initiatives.
And yet here was Sally Kornbluth on January 3, blithely trumpeting the imminent arrival of MIT s latest diversity sinecure, the VPEI. The university already has an Institute Community and Equity Officer (ICEO) charged with being a thought leader on the subjects of community, equity, inclusion, and diversity, according to the ICEO s official description. This equity officer oversees MIT s Strategic Action Plan for Belonging, Achievement, and Composition, which requires each academic program to improve the representation of underrepresented graduate students, faculty, postdocs, and undergraduates. The Strategic Action Plan for Belonging, Achievement, and Composition posits that the composition of our community, and of our leadership, should reflect a commitment to diversity. It provides no argument for why MIT s composition should reflect a commitment to diversity, nor evidence for why such a commitment is compatible with colorblind academic excellence.
The incomparable Heather MacDonald.