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Critics Challenge Diversity Language in Virginia Tech’s Tenure Policy

By  Robin Wilson
March 26, 2009

Virginia Tech has come under criticism from some outside groups for a set of new guidelines that, the critics say, appear to require faculty members to show a commitment to diversity as part of their bids for tenure and promotion.

The critics, including the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, say the guidelines establish a “loyalty oath” that violates professors’ academic freedom.

The guidelines at issue govern faculty members in the university’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. They say that a promotion and tenure committee “expects all dossiers to demonstrate the candidate’s active involvement in diversity.”

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Virginia Tech has come under criticism from some outside groups for a set of new guidelines that, the critics say, appear to require faculty members to show a commitment to diversity as part of their bids for tenure and promotion.

The critics, including the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, say the guidelines establish a “loyalty oath” that violates professors’ academic freedom.

The guidelines at issue govern faculty members in the university’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. They say that a promotion and tenure committee “expects all dossiers to demonstrate the candidate’s active involvement in diversity.”

But the university’s provost, Mark G. McNamee, says not only is the language on diversity not really new, it is also merely intended to encourage faculty members to pursue activities related to diversity, not to require it.

Three years ago, said Mr. McNamee, the university began asking faculty members to list activities they had engaged in related to diversity in annual reports on their work that they give to department heads. He said faculty members had asked administrators about how they might inform the university of this work, and “we wanted people to feel it was valued.”

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The university drew up a list of activities that faculty members should mention in their annual reports—including taking part in diversity-awareness workshops, helping recruit and offer mentorship to female students and those from racial minority groups, and incorporating diversity-related scholarship into their teaching.

“The university is really committed to improving our overall profile in diversity,” said the provost. “We want to be supportive and attractive to people from all different groups.”

This year, when the college drew up new standards for promotion and tenure, Mr. McNamee said, it simply included in those guidelines the commitment to diversity that had already been present in the annual reports.

But in a letter it sent Wednesday to Charles W. Steger, Virginia Tech’s president, FIRE says the language on diversity amounts to promotion of a “political orthodoxy.” “Although requiring candidates to demonstrate ‘involvement in diversity initiatives’ may seem admirable and innocuous, in practice this requirement amounts to an ideological loyalty oath,” says the letter, written by Adam Kissel, director of the group’s individual-rights defense program. Mr. Kissel asked the university to revise the standards.

The National Association of Scholars has also criticized Virginia Tech’s new guidelines in an article on its Web site. The article says a commitment to diversity does not belong in guidelines that evaluate a professor’s bid for promotion and tenure. “‘Diversity’ is not a category of academic accomplishment equivalent to high-quality teaching or success in scholarly research and publishing,” says the article. “‘Diversity’ is an ideology.”

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In an e-mail message to The Chronicle on Wednesday, Mr. McNamee said he would review the new promotion and tenure guidelines in light of the letter from FIRE.

“We certainly have no interest in stepping outside the mainstream of academic freedom,” he wrote. “We want to support faculty efforts in the broad area of diversity, but we would not and do not want to impede anyone’s academic privileges.”

When asked during a telephone interview what would happen to faculty members who failed to report any involvement in diversity activities, Mr. McNamee said, “Nothing.”

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Robin Wilson
Robin Wilson began working for The Chronicle in 1985, writing widely about faculty members’ personal and professional lives, as well as about issues involving students. She also covered Washington politics, edited the Students section, and served as news editor.
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