Report: Taxpayer dollars abetted ‘diversity checkpoints’ in hiring for academic jobs

Federal funding has driven diversity hiring policies at universities for decades, with the National Science Foundation (NSF) playing a central role through its ADVANCE program, according to a new report from Manhattan Institute’s City Journal. 

The report by Manhattan Institute senior fellow John Sailer details how the NSF, a federal agency that supports research and education, has funded so-called “diversity checkpoints” at numerous universities. These “checkpoints” are policies that require faculty applicant pools to meet certain demographic standards before hiring processes can continue. 

Sailer, who is also the director of higher education policy for the Manhattan Institute, cited several examples in which universities received millions in NSF grants to support diversity hiring practices. 

At the Ohio-based Case Western Reserve University, a $3.5 million NSF grant funded a system between 2003 and 2008 in which deans reviewed faculty pool applicants for diversity. 

The grant gave deans the authority to reject any applicant lists that “did not reflect the diversity of the national pool.” The task was later factored into deans’ performance reviews, according to Sailer’s report. 

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley followed suit in 2015, allowing the university’s vice president to oversee the recruitment process after receiving a $3 million NSF ADVANCE grant.

At the University of California in Irvine, “equity advisors” sit on every faculty search committee and could pause or approve searches based on the demographics of the applicant pool. According to the university’s website, the program began in 2001 with an NSF ADVANCE grant and remains active today.

Similar policies were adopted at Central Michigan University in 2022 and the University of Missouri, St. Louis, in 2020, both as part of NSF ADVANCE grant initiatives.

Support for these types of interventions has come from high-level NSF leadership, according to Sailer. 

Deborah Loewenberg Ball, a two-time member of the National Science Board, which oversees the NSF, publicly defended the approach during a March panel on “manufactured rage” against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

As dean of the University of Michigan School of Education from 2005 to 2016, Loewenberg Ball imposed strict diversity requirements on faculty search committees. 

On the panel, she described how she directed those committees, stating that searches could not proceed until the applicant pool met diversity expectations.

“This search doesn’t go forward ‘til you go back and bring me back a pool that looks decent before we even take another step,” she said.

Sailer called Loewenberg Ball’s approach controversial, arguing that such directives are legally questionable and shift power away from faculty and toward administrators. 

In 2023, Wichita State University proposed a hiring system that would pause searches to seek more diverse candidates if necessary. 

The proposal, which secured $1 million in NSF funding, aimed to boost the recruitment of women and minorities in STEM fields. The proposal also suggested that the hiring policy could later extend to other departments as part of the university’s wider DEI initiative. 

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