July Update from the AFA
Our Call to End DEI Statements in Grant Funding
On July 18, the AFA released a major new guidance statement calling on federal agencies that fund research in STEMM fields to desist from requiring DEI statements in their grant proposals. Widespread requirements for such statements have been implemented rapidly with far too little attention to their potential misuse, their effects on quality and integrity of funded research, and the threat they represent to academic freedom.
Just as mandatory DEI statements in hiring are being discontinued, our guidance statement urges federal agencies to shift to alternative approaches to cultivating participation of all individuals regardless of their identities.
“Though the details of DEI requirements vary across agencies and programs, common features include vagueness of their goals and lack of outcome assessments, along with an implicit expectation of allegiance to a politicized litmus test that is, in effect, compelled speech on a controversial issue in violation of academic freedom,” we wrote in the guidance statement.
The statement continued: “Federally funded STEMM research is a crown jewel of American higher education and confers enormous benefits upon our society and the world. The integrity of the processes whereby funding decisions are made is of critical importance to the continued success of the enterprise and to its support by the public from whom the funds derive.”
New Academic Paper from AFA Members
Our statement coincided with the publication of a new peer-reviewed research paper by an international group of researchers raising the alarm about U.S. science funding increasingly being tied to compliance with DEI ideology. The paper’s lead authors were AFA members Jeffrey Flier of Harvard Medical School, Robert P. George of Princeton University, Anna Krylov of the University of Southern California, Luana Maroja of Williams College, Julia Schaletzky of U.C. Berkeley, and Abigail Thompson of U.C. Davis.
Their groundbreaking article documents how U.S. funding agencies have begun to impose DEI requirements as a prerequisite for STEMM funding and explains why this is a threat to academic freedom and research integrity.
“Funding decisions require expert peer review to assess the merit of proposals and the quality of research teams,” said Jeffrey Flier. “Though arising from worthy goals, the introduction of poorly justified and operationalized DEI considerations into peer review threatens the integrity and quality of science funding decisions.”
Renewing Our Calls with FIRE and HxA for Institutional Neutrality
This month, we also joined with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and the Heterodox Academy (HxA) to renew our call from February for colleges and universities to adopt a policy of institutional neutrality on social and political issues. With the start of the new academic year approaching and conflicts abroad continuing to simmer, now is the time for universities to commit to remaining neutral on hot button political issues.
As our February open letter to the university community stated, “In recent years, colleges and universities have increasingly weighed in on social and political issues that do not concern core academic matters or institutional operations. This has led our institutions of higher education to become politicized and has created an untenable situation whereby they are expected to weigh in on all social and political issues. Most critically, these stances risk establishing an orthodox view on campus, threatening the pursuit of knowledge for which higher education exists.”
Welcoming New Member Nominations
The AFA welcomed 4 new members in July, bringing our total membership to 876. As always, the AFA continues to accept new members on a rolling basis. Please send any nominations to AFA Director of Operations Howard Muncy at hmuncy@academicfreedom.org.
As we continue to expand our membership and casework, we’re grateful to everyone who has donated to our organization and hope all of our members and friends will consider contributing here. We could not do our work without your support.