Academic Freedom and Diversity Statements/Equity in Performance

In terms of Diversity Statements, consider reading AAUP’s position on Diversity Statements and juxtapose it with FIRE’s stance.  Faculty and staff inclusion in developing the content of questions requiring such statements and criterion and how they are used is in line with AAUP’s approach.

Case studies have been developed in which diversity statements and criterion are maintained even when challenged by FIRE. 

Most importantly, the president must ensure that they are making the decisions and working with legal counsel in developing a strategy if challenged.  Legal counsel should follow the lead of the institution’s needs, and outline risks rather than making institutional decisions for the president/board.

The architects of Divisive Concepts legislation, and now Project 2025, see academic freedom as a means to short-circuit truth. Higher education has long celebrated the debate of multiple points of view. Implicit in entertaining multiple points of view has been a search for enhanced knowledge and a reliance on fact or evidence—or, on the contrary, use of examples that are false test our thinking. However, more and more, academic freedom is being used to bring speakers and thoughts that have no such educational value to our campuses.