OPINION: DEI Takeover Makes UT-Tyler Unreliable Institution

(Ritter Tower at The University of Texas at Tyler // Source: James Hescock)

The University of Texas at Tyler (UT-Tyler) has proposed a new institutional plan that puts critical race theory at the center of its approach. The plan states that the university’s new commitments (among others) are [to advance] "a campus climate that cultivates justice, equity, diversity and inclusion” (or what's know as JEDI). 

While these traditional terms sound positive, in reality, they are applications of critical race theory (CRT), a toxic ideology that claims Western society exists to benefit white people through systematic racism and that equality of outcome is a desirable goal.

Sadly, CRT’s introduction into the university’s strategic plan introduces a biased ideology that corrupts the soundness of the university's judgement and makes it wholly untrustworthy with respect to its decisions. The unfortunate result is that the university’s current stakeholders—students, parents and local employers—should abandon UT-Tyler altogether in search for a trustworthy institution that can serve their needs. 

CRT Introduces Bias

The basic assumption in CRT (or at least one foundational one) is that disparity, whenever it exists, is a result of discrimination. CRT incorporates this false assumption by concluding that the success of white Europeans to positions of power and influence is the result of systematic discrimination.  

However, racism (a form of discrimination) is an unsatisfactory explanation for whites’ performance in comparison to non-whites because other factors rather than institutional racism provide legitimate explanations for disparate outcomes among races.

For example, Black students under-perform Asians, whites, and Hispanics on average on standardized exams. CRT theorists blame racism in the exam, but culture and family structure provide worthy explanations to student performance. Yet, CRT theorists (and DEI advocates) exclude this possibility. Instead, they attack the exam as racist because many believe that unequal outcomes must be the result of discrimination. (These also object to the presence of any inequality at all.)

This blinded way of looking a situation obscures a person to other important causal factors that can reasonably explain outcomes in a situation. Yet, if CRT adherents only see discrimination wherever inequalities exist, then they approach the situation with a bias that blinds them to other explanations.

UT-Tyler's New Managerial Assumption

However, this same assumption – that disparity equals discrimination—is the assumption of the philosophy within the university's new institutional plan.  

This biased starting point makes the university untrustworthy because biased premises skew the value of one's conclusions. Rather than start with a “facts first” approach and look for a satisfactory narrative to explain the evidence at hand, instead this approach is “narrative-first” or “ideology-first”. It looks for facts to fit the narrative and assumes disparities it finds must result from discrimination. Therefore, it will look for discrimination in a situation even if it is not there.

Naturally, this results in flawed conclusions that serve a preferred narrative rather than the truth. It results in either the wholesale rejection of correct conclusions or the minimization of the significance of facts or theory that challenge DEI assumptions.

DEI's adoption into the university's managerial approach is a recipe for disaster. It fundamentally changes the university's commitments and is why UT-Tyler is now untrustworthy. The institutional bias at work in the university from DEI makes the operation wholly untrustworthy in its evaluation and conclusions about data.

DEI Takeover Will Be Complete

Sadly, there is no way around this. Once DEI commitments become priorities, then everything else eventually follows. Just as senior leadership decisions of a Fortune 500 company flow down to affect the departments below, so decisions by UT-Tyler's administration will eventually flow out to affect all of the colleges and departments in its oversight.

This means that the extent of the DEI takeover at the institution will be complete. It will completely take over the university, just as it has at other higher education institutions across the country. 

Take The University of Tennessee, for example. Once the university president committed to adopt an “anti-racist” philosophy (think “critical race theory” approach) the administration began to tie college and departmental performance measures to DEI, linking departmental success with contributions to DEI. It also asked colleges to develop an action plan for how they will promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” in their jurisdictions. Under this same impetus, UT also made DEI contributions part of faculty evaluation, linking DEI to career advancement. This undoubtedly chills academic expression, from the faculty, as National Association of Scholars reporter John Sailer observed.

These patterns at UT show how DEI's adoption into the strategic plan re-defines the university’s mission, from an evidence-based, observational, facts-based approach to discovering knowledge to conformity to ideology. It changes it so much so that these new priorities spread to every area of the university and result in a total transformation of the university apparatus. Therefore, once it is installed, the DEI takeover will be total and complete.

Transformation at UT-Tyler

UT-Tyler's renovation seems to already be underway. For example, the university’s Human Resources webpage now has a list of DEI-specific interview questions hiring managers can ask job applicants for employment at the university. This shows that ideological conformity is already a consideration for UT-Tyler employment.

Moreover, there is now a “Presidential JEDI Council”, which advises UT-Tyler President Kirk Calhoun on how to advance JEDI policy into UT-Tyler. The group's membership reflects many different constituents from across the institution, from deans to some faculty, along with one student representative.

This transformation of remaking the university into the likeness of everything DEI is already underway at UT-Tyler.

Therefore, it becomes clear even at our local institution, just as at others, that the DEI transformation ahead will be total and complete. This is why one cannot trust UT-Tyler anymore given its new institutional bias and the extent to which this bias will spread into the university. There will be nowhere to escape this influence. Therefore, reasonable stakeholders should abandon UT-Tyler for a reliable institution. 

Conclusion

Therefore, stakeholders should distrust UT-Tyler given its new bias, one that is not isolated, but fundamental to the university's philosophy and mission. Also, the spread of bias destroys the hope that some spot in the university will escape transformation. It will completely takeover the university and leave no way to escape it.

Therefore, stakeholders—the students, parents, employers who rely on UT-Tyler for education and employable human capital—must abandon UT-Tyler in search for another reliable institution that can meet their needs. For the introduction of bias in its managerial approach and fundamentally different mission now makes the institution wholly unreliable. It's sad to say, but UT-Tyler is no longer worthy of trust. 

Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following me.

Twitter: @jhescock12

**Disclosure: This article was updated and edited for flow on September 6, 2022 at 1:16 p.m. No substance to the claims in the original essay was altered.