The Subcommittee on Anti-Semitism and Anti-Israel Bias of the Stanford University Jewish Advisory Committee released a 128-page report on May 31, 2024. Its twelve members – faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students, an alumnus and two rabbis – deserve high compensation. praise for their work.
The Subcommittee presented a surprisingly bold recommendation in a section entitled Rethinking diversity, equity and inclusion. It challenged one of Stanford’s core objectives underlying its academic mission: diversity, equity and inclusion.
Stanford’s commitment to diversity began decades ago and recently changed to DEI, the acronym for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. DEI programs have focused 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 programs culminated in IDEAL, Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in a Learning Environment, which provided new opportunities to expand BIPOC programs on campus. The number of DEI faculty and administrators at Stanford has increased from 80 in 2021 to 177 in 2024. The university has established departments, centers, institutes and programs in every racial and ethnic category on campus.
In Rethinking diversity, equity and inclusionn, the Subcommittee writes:
In the longer term we make different advice. We believe that this identity-driven approach to belonging and inclusivity is anathema to the university’s educational mission, and ultimately comes at the expense of the groups it seeks to serve. Among other things, these DEI programs tend to promote overly simplified histories and social justice ideologies without subjecting them to the critical examination that is a core aspect of a college education.
In other words, the Subcommittee is charged with countering anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias within a fundamentally flawed system, and thus has unwittingly been tasked with recommending how to fix the very system that is failing our Jewish and Israeli community members has left. many others. In that spirit, we offer the radical proposal to move from DEI programs as currently constructed to a pluralistic framework that benefits individuals. all backgrounds… (pp. 106-07)
In summary, DEI is a fundamentally flawed system, anathema to the university’s educational mission, and has failed the Jewish community on campus.
Aside from the writings of several Hoover Institution scholars who have criticized DEI, the Subcommittee’s report represents the first serious internal challenge to Stanford’s DEI policy.
The subcommittee’s report will be kept in the Stanford archives and largely forgotten. But it is a start, however small, in recommending corrective action.
Alvin Rabushka is the David and Joan Traitel Senior Fellow, Emeritus at the Hoover Institution.