Top university BREAKS from Harvard as leftist institutions begin to bend under Trump pressure

Daily Mail​

28-05-2025

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) closed down its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) department last week amid pressure from the government.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth has 'wound down' the Institute Community and Equity Office, a spokesman for the college told DailyMail.com.
'MIT is in the talent business,' Kornbluth said in a statement about moving towards an improved hiring system, which the university said began 18 months ago.
'Our success depends on attracting exceptionally talented people of every background, from across the country and around the world, and making sure everyone at MIT feels welcome and supported, so they can do their best work and thrive.'
It marks a stark break from the approach being taken by Harvard University, where leaders are refusing to bend to Donald Trump 's agenda.
The Trump administration has retaliated against the fellow Cambridge, MA college by cutting $100 million in its remaining contracts with the federal government.
MIT's latest move comes weeks after it became the first top college to drop the controversial 'diversity statement' previously required of prospective employees.
The university previously required faculty applicants to provide the hiring team with a statement demonstrating 'knowledge of challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion'.
Applicants were also required to outline their 'track record of working with diverse groups of people' and share how they plan to advance diversity, equity (DEI) and inclusion within their role at the school.
Kornbluth decided to remove the requirement because 'compelled' diversity statements allegedly 'impinge on freedom of expression' and 'don't work', the university confirmed to DailyMail.com.
The school is the first elite private university to backtrack on the controversial application practice.
An MIT spokesperson on Monday confirmed that 'requests for a statement on diversity will no longer be part of applications for any faculty positions at MIT'.
Kornbluth made the decision to reform the highly-criticized hiring practice with the 'support of the Provost, Chancellor, and all six academic deans'.
The President said she believes MIT can 'build an inclusive environment' without requiring diversity statements.
'My goals are to tap into the full scope of human talent, to bring the very best to MIT, and to make sure they thrive once here,' Kornbluth told DailyMail.com in a statement.
'We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don't work.'
The policy change comes after a survey conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a free speech advocacy group, last year revealed that students and faculty were 'unclear' if the 'administration protects free speech'.
The report, released in January 2023, found that 'large portions of MIT faculty and students are afraid to express their views in various academic settings.'
Around 25 per cent of faculty reported they were 'very' or 'extremely' likely to self-censor, the FIRE survey revealed. Forty-one per cent of faculty also agreed that the administration's stance on free speech was 'not clear'.
Last month, a Harvard Law School professor urged the Ivy League - which MIT is not apart of - to eliminate mandatory diversity statements.
Randall L. Kennedy, in a column in the Harvard Crimson, argued that requiring faculty to sign DEI statements 'poses a profound challenge to academic freedom'.
He argued DEI statements force faculty and staff to 'toe a political line' apply pressure towards 'leftist conformity' and 'abets cynicism.'
'Universities are under a legal, moral, and pedagogical duty to take action against wrongful discriminatory conduct,' Kennedy wrote.
'But demands for mandatory DEI statements venture far beyond that obligation into territory that is full of booby-traps inimical to an intellectually healthy university environment.'
The DEI statement policy, often leading to the select hiring of minorities or specific demographics in order to increase diversity, was strongly pushed by Harvard's first Black female president Claudine Gay.
Gay, alongside the presidents of UPenn and MIT were called before a congressional hearing in December last year to account for the rise of antisemitism on their college campuses.
During the hearing, Gay refused to categorize calls for Jew genocide as harassment or concede that Jewish students had a right to feel safe at Ivy League schools.
Gay resigned as president of Harvard in January but failed to apologize for testimony. The academic had actively pushed a DEI agenda at the college, and had herself been criticized as underqualified for the role.
Higher education institutions are not the only firms revising their DEI hiring practices. Last year's Supreme Court ruling overturning the use of affirmative action in universities has drawn attention to corporate diversity efforts.
Laws limiting the use of DEI policies in public schools have been introduced in Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis and in the universities of Texas by Governor Greg Abbott.
Several American companies have distanced themselves from controversial diversity initiatives in the wake of the college antisemitism row, business consultants revealed earlier this year.
The spate of antisemitism at some of the country's most elite college campuses has reportedly dragged the DEI term further into a toxic political debate that businesses now wish to distance themselves from.
'The focus is moving away from 'those three words' towards efforts around 'wellbeing and inclusion,' Diana Scott from The Conference Board told Axios in January.
DEI had already attracted some high-profile critics from the business world including Elon Musk and billionaire Bill Ackman.