When Discipline-Specific Accreditors Go Woke. If an academic field gets politicized, consider looking to its professional overseers.

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | January 27, 2023 | John Sailer

[karpov]

Across the country, an increasing number of universities now require scholars to submit “diversity statements” in hiring, promotion, and tenure. Many have abandoned or downplayed standardized tests in the name of racial equity. Meanwhile, offices with flowery titles like “Inclusive Excellence” frequently conduct training sessions that espouse spurious claims about “microaggressions” and “white supremacy culture.”

By now, it’s clear that many policies that fall under the banner of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI)—like the ones I’ve listed above—pose a threat to academic freedom, good scholarship, and sound education. No doubt, many campus reformers have already taken on the project of reigning in the DEI bureaucracy.

But to roll back the continuous overreach of DEI, it’s important to understand the various institutional incentives that lead to its growth in the first place. I write to highlight just one dimension: accreditation. Increasingly, the various bodies that accredit colleges and schools—from medical schools to journalism schools to schools of engineering—push for far-reaching and ideologically-laden DEI policies. For an institution to resist such a mandate is a risky and complicated move.

Medical Schools

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) has long included diversity in its accreditation standards, but over the last few years its diversity requirement has elicited increasingly exhaustive DEI measures from medical schools across the country.

In 2020, the LCME re-accredited Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) but deemed the medical school lacking in the area of faculty diversity. The medical school responded with a comprehensive “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism Strategic Action Plan,” which was designed “in alignment with accreditation requirements.” That plan is notable for its strong warning to those who don’t get with the program.

[cgbg]

We are talking pure thuggery—obey or starve.

It isn’t freedom if obedience is mandatory.

[EinNYC]

Do you really want doctors selected for, and trained in DIVERSITY instead of physiology, anatomy, etc.? I hope that the dimwits who dreamed this idiocy up would be the first to die under the inferior care of such “doctors”.

[Albion Wilde]

We are so screwed. This will last for generations, poisoning the well.

[Antoninus]

This garbage is creeping into the accrediting bodies of ALL professional orgs. These orgs were originally meant to be gatekeepers to ensure a high standard of quality in a given profession. Now, they are politicized to keep out certain opinions and beliefs. The gay/trans cr@p is heavily promoted and Christianity is only acceptable in as much as it kowtows to the gay/trans crap.

Remember when they told us that they "just wanted to get married"? Guess again, suckers.