Cornell University Using DEI Policy to Reject Faculty Candidates for Not ‘Conforming,’ Group Claims

Cornell University is “corrupting” its science, math and engineering programs by using its “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” policy to reject a huge portion of candidates for faculty jobs because their views are deemed counter to the school’s left-leaning “ideological orthodoxy,” a merit-based campus advocacy group alleged after reviewing bombshell leaked documents.

A report by the Cornell Free Speech Alliance cities “smoking gun” evidence that the “DEI Statements” of prospective professors were used to reject 21% of applicants in a recent faculty search in a hard science field.

The Upstate New York Ivy no longer requires candidates to submit explanations of how they would advance Cornell’s commitment to the principle of DEI — but such forms were used against the job hopefuls anyway, the Free Speech Alliance said.

The rejections came without fairly considering the candidates’ academic credentials, research, or teaching abilities, the group alleged.

The analysis was based on whistleblower documents and internal reports provided to the alliance by Cornell staffers, according to the Free Speech Alliance.

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The internal documents show that the school also used demographic factors such as race and age to favor some candidates and disadvantage others.

“DEI is NOT ‘leveling the playing field’ to fully include underrepresented groups – but, instead, is ‘heavily tilting’ the playing field in favor of faculty candidates possessing preferred demographic characteristics and viewpoints,” the report said.

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