Maxwell Steinhardt ’78

3 Weeks Ago

Doubting the Value of DEI

DEI has increasingly seemed to me to be far more a political ambition than some sort of moral imperative. The broad experience of DEI in, and significantly, outside of academia suggests that it is ineffective in achieving a recognized and admired transformation. Instead, we see a disappointing displacement of meritocracy, and DEI’s lack of common sense or a convincing moral compass. It is noteworthy that DEI promotes actions considered to be racist. Until DEI as an ambition can demonstrate acceptable efficacy, it will remain, in my view, a mechanism to supplant wise and proven performance standards with a now fading attempt at a newly defined sort of fairness. I am not sure how DEI ideas were ever really an improvement, and I continue to have serious doubts that DEI was really seriously thought through. In my view it is not wise to double down on DEI.

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