UPDATE - Texas Bans DEI In Hiring

WASHINGTON - Feb. 9, 2023 - PRLog -- IMPORTANT UPDATE - Texas Bans DEI In Hiring
Its Use Violates Federal and State Laws

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 9, 2023) -  Texas Governor Greg Abbott has just told state agencies - including state universities - to stop considering diversity in hiring.

In a formal legal memo written Monday, Abbott's chief of staff Gardner Pate told agency leaders that using diversity, equity and inclusion [DEI] policies in hiring violates federal and state employment laws.

"The innocuous sounding notion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) has been manipulated to push policies that expressly favor some demographic groups to the detriment of others," Pate wrote.

This presumably would put an end to the policies at Texas Tech University which were highlighted and criticized by public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

DEI Returning McCarthy-Type Pledges and 1984's Newspeak to Campuses
Even Professors of Biology Must Sign Diversity Pledges, Speak Fluent Newspeak

WASHINGTON, D.C. (February 9, 2023) - DEI [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] appears to be forcing universities into an updated form of McCarthyism where professors must again sign loyalty pledges, and also learn and follow the dictates of Newspeak ["a purposefully ambiguous and confusing language with restricted grammar and limited vocabulary" used in the novel 1984].

As the Chronicle of Higher Education just reported in an article entitled "Yes, DEI Can Erode Academic Freedom. Let's Not Pretend Otherwise," DEI consists of "trafficking in PR-driven wishful thinking" which combines elements of "management-consultant buzzwords, social justice slogans, and 'therapy speak,'" and is inconsistent with academic freedom and free speech.

As just one very recent example, Professor Banzhaf cites a situation at his own George Washington University.

There a professor is the subject of a federal civil rights complaint, and an investigation by the US Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, for allegedly engaging in "erasive antisemitism" by creating a "hostile environment for Jewish and Israeli students" - which allegedly occurred in her course named - of all things - "Diversity."

While few are refusing to accept that it is OK for universities to be diverse, include many different kinds of students, and strive for equality - or is it equity - many in academia are worried that this new movement is being carried to illogical extremes in some situations, but they are increasingly afraid of cancel culture.

Indeed, some of these instances might seem almost funny, expect that they can wreck professional careers and seriously undermine what has always been regarded as the primary goal of higher education - learning and teaching the truth, says Banzhaf.

http://banzhaf.net/ jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com @profbanzhaf