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‘We immediately withdrew this practice and initiated a review of hiring procedures across all colleges and departments’

Texas Tech University announced it would prohibit the school’s biology department from using applicants’ commitments to wokeism and “diversity, equity and inclusion” after media coverage exposed the practice.

The public university announced on Tuesday that it “learned of a department that required a diversity, equity, and inclusion statement in addition to the usual applicant materials as part of a faculty search” and “immediately withdrew this practice and initiated a review of hiring procedures across all colleges and departments.”

The statement came after a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on Monday exposed the Texas Tech biology department’s use of diversity commitments and woke language in interviews and applications.

John Sailer, with the National Association of Scholars, wrote on Monday:

Amidst the explosion of university diversity, equity and inclusion policies, Texas Tech’s biology department adopted its own DEI motion promising to “require and strongly weight a diversity statement from all candidates.” These short, written declarations are meant to summarize an academic job seeker’s past and potential contributions to DEI efforts on campus.

Sailed obtained the documents through Freedom of Information Act requests.

“We will withdraw the use of these statements and evaluation rubrics if identified,” the university announced on Tuesday.

“After I published my article in @WSJopinion, Texas Tech University announced that it has ended its use of DEI statements,” Sailer tweeted.

The removal won applause from academics and education commentators.

Thread. Also, please see the Academic Freedom Alliance’s statement on threats to academic freedom posed by colleges’ and universities’ requiring “diversity statements” in faculty hiring and promotion: https://t.co/SKkwuQSpwm https://t.co/SLyJ8gdsQK

— Robert P. George🇻🇦🇺🇸🪕 (@McCormickProf) February 8, 2023

@JohnDSailer — @TheKingsCollege alum — doing outstanding work at @NASorg and @CityJournal. Beating back the darkness. https://t.co/qvIEDhZzaa

— David C. Innes (@DCInnes1) February 8, 2023

“WINNING: After @JohnDSailer’s bombshell report in the WSJ, Texas Tech has suspended its ‘diversity statement’ policy, which prioritized job candidates who expressed fealty to left-wing racialist ideology,” Christopher Rufo tweeted. “The war against the DEI bureaucracy has just begun.”

“How much of the nonsense that takes place at our universities could be stopped just by publicizing it?” Steve McGuire with the American Council of Trustees and Alumni wrote.

MORE: University scrubs ‘white consciousness’ report following coverage

IMAGE: John Sailer/Twitter

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