The University of California will no longer allow diversity statements to be used for faculty hiring, the system announced this week – abandoning a controversial practice that UC spearheaded for over a decade.
The change comes as UC battles pushback from the Trump administration over diversity initiatives and the federal government has threatened to withhold millions of dollars in funding from universities that have programs or policies related to diversity, equity and inclusion. The administration has already slashed millions of dollars in federal funds from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.
Diversity statements generally ask job applicants to describe how they would contribute to campus diversity. The UC Board of Regents adopted a commitment to achieving diversity among university faculty and students in 2007 and many UC academic departments and programs have since required applicants to describe how they have prioritized diversity in their careers and how they would advance diversity and inclusion in their role at UC.
But in a reversal, the decision to scrap the statements also came from the regents, who are currently gathered at UCLA in their first meeting since the federal government launched several investigations into the university system and UC campuses over allegations of antisemitism and discrimination.
In a Wednesday letter to campus provosts announcing the change, UC provost Katherine Newman said some programs, departments and recruitments have required diversity statements as part of the hiring process, “despite the fact that the University of California has never maintained such a systemwide policy.”
“The requirement to submit a diversity statement may lead applicants to focus on an aspect of their candidacy that is outside their expertise or prior experience,” Newman said in the letter. “To be clear, stand-alone diversity statements will no longer be permitted in recruitments.”
She said faculty will still be allowed to share any “inclusive academic achievements in teaching, research and service” during the academic review process and reaffirmed the university system’s commitment to serving all communities.
In 2018, UC Berkeley received funding from the UC Office of the President to conduct a cluster hire to expand and recruit diversity in the life sciences departments. Nearly 1,000 applications were received for five open faculty positions, and a campus hiring committee narrowed the pool of applicants to 214 – based solely on candidates’ contributions to diversity, equity and inclusion.
This week, the systemwide change garnered praise from critics of the practice, who called diversity statements “loyalty oaths” and “tools of discrimination” that promote race-based hiring and are used to weed out applicants opposed to diversity initiatives.
“Mandatory diversity statements can too easily become a test of political ideology and conformity,” said UC Davis mathematics professor Abigail Thompson in a 2019 Wall Street Journal opinion piece where she criticized UC Berkeley’s rubric used to score an applicant’s diversity statement.
The University of California was sued over its use of diversity statements in 2023, but the case was tossed out by a federal judge in January 2024.
But others expressed concern that the regents’ decision is an attempt to appease President Trump and his administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in higher education and protect UC funding.
UC President Michael Drake announced a systemwide hiring freeze Wednesday in preparation for funding impacts at both the state and federal level. Stanford, Harvard and Johns Hopkins University have also announced hiring freezes or job cuts as a way to cut costs and prepare for additional Trump administration funding cuts.
“The timing of this decision… indicates that it is not actually about what materials we request from job candidates,” said Mara Loveman, a UC Berkeley professor and board member of the Berkeley Faculty Association. The decision “is clearly a minimal effort to defend the University of California against the Trump administration’s authoritarian attacks on higher education in California and across the country.”