Arizona Universities Drop DEI Wording in Job Posts

Public universities in Arizona dropped the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) statements in job postings after demands by the conservative Goldwater Institute, according to the Arizona Board of Regents. 

However, spokespeople from the board and from Arizona State University told The Arizona Republic that using DEI statements was never required, but the newspaper noted that the wording was included in several recent job postings. 

A current posting for a postdoctoral research scholar for ASU’s Institute of Human Origins calls for “required” materials including “a statement addressing how your past and/or present potential contributions to diversity and inclusion will advance ASU’s commitment to inclusive excellence.”

The posting also states: “The College values our cultural and intellectual diversity, and continually strives to foster a welcoming and inclusive environment. We are especially interested in applicants who can strengthen the diversity of the academic community.”

The Goldwater Institute in January criticized such statements, detailing a review of job listings at ASU, the University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University that was conducted in October.

It concluded that schools were using such statements as the current posting to “circumvent the state’s constitutional prohibition against political litmus tests in public educational institutions.” 

The report showed that more than a quarter of the job postings at UA required a DEI statement, with NAU requiring them in 73% of postings, and ASU in 81%. 

The institute said in a news release Tuesday that it struck a “death blow” to the DEI practice. 

However, ASU spokeswoman Veronica Sanchez said she could not immediately say the university stopped requiring such statements, adding that the use of them “is not essential to ASU’s commitment to inclusive excellence found in the ASU charter,” as it has one of the nation’s most diverse student populations.

Asked about existing job postings that contain the requirement, Sanchez said that “sometimes removing certain job postings online takes time.”

Last month, former Republican gubernatorial candidate Karrin Taylor Robson and Steven McGuire of the conservative American Council of Trustees and Alumni said in an opinion piece for The Arizona Republic that DEI statements required of job applicants are “coerced speech” that “undermines the crucial diversity of sociopolitical ideas.”

McGuire praised the universities’ decision Tuesday, and said that while teachers and employees should be open to working with people who have different backgrounds and perspectives, DEI statements become an “ideological litmus test [that] communicate to people there’s a right way to think if you want to work here.”

Officials at the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University didn’t immediately respond to inquiries about the practice.