Chambana Sun

Faculty members at the University of Illinois looking to move up the ranks may soon be forced to prove engagement in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training.

In an announcement made by the Office of the Provost, faculty members were recently informed the “promotion and tenure process for tenure-stream faculty members” will serve to “reflect the evolving strategic priorities and current practices” of the university. As part of the change, three task forces — including the “Task Force on the Revision of Promotion and Tenure Guidelines” — released a proposed update to Communication #9, the school’s primary source for information on its tenure policy.

Even as school officials insist professors interested in tenure will “not be penalized if they are not doing DEI work,” the school’s primary source for information on its tenure policy informs they will “still need to prepare the DEI statement so that they can think about what they are already doing around DEI and what they will do in the future.”

Chicago venture capitalist Jeffrey Carter recently likened the whole situation to the “inmates running the asylum,” adding they “don’t care about education, they care about indoctrination.”

According to the university, “Regardless of their area of expertise, all faculty are expected to make efforts toward enhancing DEI,” by such means as “integrating work by scholars from groups historically marginalized or underrepresented in academia into your curriculum, including and effectively mentoring undergraduate and graduate students in your research group, and attending workshops to develop your DEI work so that it is more effective.”