Ohio State University Discriminated By Focusing On Race When Hiring Facultly

Many of our local Democrats and media outlets are quick to criticize Governor DeSantis over his determination to end the “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI) emphasis on state college campuses. These Democrats and media organizations attempt to tar Desantis as a racist because of his opposition to DEI. Ironically, recent disclosures at Ohio State University have revealed the blatant racism of the DEI process. 

For years, colleges and private companies have been giving preferences to minorities in order to be “equitable and inclusive.” The only way to accomplish this goal was to discriminate against people solely on the basis of their skin color, gender or sexual preference. 

The recent Supreme Court decision, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, made it clear that it is unconstitutional to assess job or student applicants based on demographic categories like race, sex or ethnicity. 

John Sailer is the Director of University Policy at the National Association of Scholars. He recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal about what he discovered through a public records request from Ohio State University. He obtained 800 pages of “Diversity Faculty Recruitment Reports from Ohio State. Until the Supreme Court decision, Ohio State’s College of Arts and Sciences required all search committees for new faculty positions to create a diversity report which “had to be approved by various deans before finalists for a job  were interviewed.”

Several years ago, the Ohio State president launched an initiative to hire 50 professors on race and social equity and underrepresented and black, indigenous and people of color hires. 

Sailer stated the reports demonstrated that Ohio State “sacrificed both academic freedom and scholarly excellence for the sake of a narrowly construed vision of diversity. 

Each report required the search committee to prove their finalists would “amplify the values of diversity, inclusion and innovation.”

One committee was searching for a professor of freshwater biology. They weighed the candidates with  a ratio of 67% on research and 33% on their contributions to DEI. Candidates could receive a zero on the DEI score if they “solely acknowledged that racism, classism, etc. are issues. You had to be a champion of the DEI philosophy to  become a finalist for the faculty.

For a job search in astrophysics, “the DEI statement was given equal weight  to the research and teaching statement.”  Do we really believe that a faculty professor of astrophysics should be judged competent in astrophysics based on his or her support of the doctrine that America is an inherently racist nation?

The recent Supreme Court decision put a spotlight on the inherent racism that permeates college campuses today. This was recently exposed by the Hamas attack that brought to the surface the hatred of Jewish people by many elite college faculty members and students. 

60 years ago our nation revolted at the sight of blacks being denied entrance to colleges because of their race. Today, the very same colleges that 60 years ago sent students to help integrate racist colleges, now are discriminating against potential professors and students based on their race. 

Fortunately, Florida has a governor who will stand up to the racist college administrators and faculty members who attempt to hire  people or admit students based on race or racial ideology. 

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