Harvard’s Biggest Faculty No Longer Requires DEI Pledges in Hiring

Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the Ivy League school’s biggest faulty division, said Monday it will no longer require tenure-track applicants to submit statements about their commitment to “diversity, inclusion, and belonging.” The FAS, which includes Harvard’s entire undergraduate program and some of its graduate schools, had previously demanded a statement from those seeking tenure-track positions on their “efforts to encourage diversity, inclusion and belonging, including past, current and anticipated future contributions in these areas.” But now, the requirement at Harvard FAS will be replaced with a “service statement” that will have applicants describe “efforts to strengthen academic communities,” in addition to a “teaching and advising statement” about how the applicant will create a “learning environment in which students are encouraged to ask questions and share their ideas.”...