The Subcommittee on Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Bias of the Jewish Advisory Committee at Stanford University issued a 128-page report on May 31, 2024. praise for their work.
The subcommittee presented some incredibly bold recommendations in a section titled Rethinking Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It challenged one of Stanford’s most important goals that underpin its academic mission: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Stanford’s commitment to diversity began decades ago, recently evolving into DEI, an acronym for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. DEI programs have focused on, and continue to emphasize, the recruitment of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) faculty and staff, and the enrollment of BIPOC undergraduate, graduate, and post-doc students. DEI’s programs culminated in IDEAL, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in the Learning Environment, which provided new spaces to expand BIPOC programs on campus. The number of DEI faculty and administrators at Stanford has grown from 80 in 2021 to 177 in 2024. The university has established departments, institutes, centers, and degree programs across all racial and ethnic lines on campus.
In Rethinking Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, The subcommittee writes:
In the long term, we make a different recommendation. We believe that this identity-driven and inclusive approach is a disgrace to the University’s educational mission, and ultimately works to the detriment of the very groups it is trying to serve. For one thing, these DEI programs tend to spread oversimplified histories and present ideas about social justice without engaging in the critical inquiry that is the core of a university education.
In other words, the Subcommittee has been charged with dealing with opposition and bias against Israel within a flawed system, and as such has been tasked with recommending without knowing how to fix this system that has failed members of the Jewish and Israeli community, among many others. In that spirit we offer a strong proposal to move from DEI systems as they are currently structured to a more inclusive framework that benefits the people. everything domains… (page 106-07)
In summary, DEI is a fundamentally flawed program, an affront to the University’s academic mission, and a failure of the Jewish community on campus.
Aside from the writings of several scholars at the Hoover Institution who have criticized DEI, the Subcommittee’s report is the first serious internal challenge to Stanford’s DEI policy.
The Subcommittee’s report will be filed away in the Stanford Archives and largely forgotten. But it is a start, albeit a small one, in recommending corrective action.
Alvin Rabushka is the David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow, Emeritus at the Hoover Institution.
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