Diversity Oaths

All in all it's just another brick in the wall
All in all you're just another brick in the wall
--Pink Floyd

Prof Williams likens today's 'diversity statements' required of university professors to post WWII loyalty oaths that were eventually struck down by the Supreme Court.

While they take various forms depending on the institution, diversity statements amount to pledge of allegiances to collegiate diversity agendas. Unfortunately, such agendas to not promote diversity at all, Rather, they foster ideological and political conformity among faculty.

As these pages recently noted, such conformity limits capacity of higher ed to develop critical thinking skills among its student body.

Prof Williams suggests some ways to assess an institution's ideological diversity. Inquire about the political party balance among the faculty--particularly among liberal arts faculty. Check to see whether the school has diversity mandates for faculty. Must they take diversity oaths? Have campus speakers been disinvited or chased off campus by protesting faculty and students?

Williams quotes Lenin: "Give me four years to teach the children and the seeds I have sewn will never be uprooted."

Diversity oaths reinforce the iron cage.