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even being here for a short time is useful

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even being here for a short time is useful

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tired but excited to implement changes and feeling like there is not enough time

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tired but excited to implement changes and feeling like there is not enough time

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Anxious about the semester

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A list of actionable items that we can refer back to later.

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A list of actionable items that we can refer back to later.

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A bit overwhelmed by the start of the semester

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A bit overwhelmed by the start of the semester

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clarity on my next steps, both in my classes and as a collective/department project

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clarity on my next steps, both in my classes and as a collective/department project

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Do we know when our next meetings as a group are happening?

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Do we know when our next meetings as a group are happening?

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Why didn't more of my colleagues come to this workshop? Why is it so difficult to convince people this work is important?

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Why didn't more of my colleagues come to this workshop? Why is it so difficult to convince people this work is important?

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a discussion about the role of prerequisites

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a discussion about the role of prerequisites

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Glad to know that everyone else is anxious too

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Glad to know that everyone else is anxious too

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working in our departments has been very good but also having access to what other departments are thinking or have come up with is awesome

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working in our departments has been very good but also having access to what other departments are thinking or have come up with is awesome

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A bit stressed, mostly because I'm still at home and won't be able to join the group until the fire department comes by to test my alarm system. 

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A bit stressed, mostly because I'm still at home and won't be able to join the group until the fire department comes by to test my alarm system. 

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I'm finding it a bit scary at times to share things with people I work alongside, but I'm trying to push back against this feeling of vulnerability. 

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I'm finding it a bit scary at times to share things with people I work alongside, but I'm trying to push back against this feeling of vulnerability. 

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Some specific strategies about how we might be able to better relate to our Latinx students (and others)

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Some specific strategies about how we might be able to better relate to our Latinx students (and others)

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I have a lot of new strategies to work with, and I need to give myself permission to implement them in a way that doesn't put me into a big overload of work all at once. 

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I have a lot of new strategies to work with, and I need to give myself permission to implement them in a way that doesn't put me into a big overload of work all at once. 

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This relevant article was in my local paper yesterday

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This relevant article was in my local paper yesterday

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https://www.marinij.com/2022/08/17/dan-walters-does-university-of-california-undercut-academic-freedom/

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Administrations and faculties at University of California campuses are embroiled in a searing controversy over requirements that applicants for faculty positions and candidates for promotion prove their active support, without reservation, of what's called "diversity, equity and inclusion."

Candidates must submit "DEI statements" that, under UC's policies, determine whether they will be considered for employment or promotions, regardless of their academic credentials.

While different campuses use slightly different "rubrics" for judging candidates on their DEI statements, they generally use a 1-to-5 scale to determine whether they should be allowed to advance.

One, at UC Davis, provides the lowest score to candidates who seem to be unaware or uninterested in the need to promote diversity, while the highest score would be given to someone who "discusses diversity, equity, and inclusion as core values that every faculty member should actively contribute to advancing."

Another version, according to a recent history of UC's Advancing Faculty Diversity Initiative, establishes a 1-to-5 scoring system to judge whether the applicant should be rejected out of hand or allowed to advance. If he or she refuses to discuss gender or ethnicity issues, or contends that such issues are "antithetical to academic freedom or the university's research mission," they will automatically receive a low score. In contrast, someone who embraces DEI as "core values that every faculty member should actively contribute to advancing" should get the highest score.

One UC Merced professor, Tanya Golash-Boza, even published a guide in the professional publication Inside Higher Ed, to help applicants frame their DEI statements in language that would pass muster with the authorities.

The use of DEI statements began at UCLA four years ago and has become virtually universal since, sparking an intense debate in academic and legal circles over whether the UC system is, in effect, elevating political correctness over academic achievement and in doing so damaging the concept of academic freedom.

To its supporters, DEI statements and other evaluations are necessary tools to ensure that the university system overcomes its historic imbalance in students and faculty that favors whites and Asians over Blacks and Latinos.

But detractors see DEI statements as violating in spirit, if not in letter, university policies that prohibit using politics as a litmus test - policies that were introduced to counter Cold War-era efforts to weed out faculty members with leftist tendencies by forcing them to take loyalty oaths.

In 1950, the Legislature passed the Levering Act, requiring all state employees to sign such oaths - a move obviously directed at the UC faculty. In fact, 31 tenured professors were fired for refusing to sign it.

After years of legal and political wrangling, the state Supreme Court, by a 6-1 vote, declared the Levering Act to be unconstitutional in 1967. Meanwhile, the UC Board of Regents adopted a policy that "No political test shall ever be considered in the appointment and promotion of any faculty member or employee."

The DEI statements were mandated because the UC system's administrators are under intense pressure from the Legislature, the Board of Regents and activist organizations to overcome ethnic imbalances in spite of voter approval of a ballot measure, Proposition 209, in 1996 that outlaws racial or gender preferences in public employment.

Moreover, in 2020 the state's voters, by a substantial margin, refused to repeal Proposition 209.

The history of how DEI statements became a powerful tool to weed out faculty applicants who don't conform is explored in a recently published and somewhat critical but remarkably objective monograph by two academic researchers affiliated with UC's Riverside campus. They are Steven Brint, a professor of sociology and public policy, and Komi T. German, who earned her doctorate at UC Riverside.

"We find ourselves with a university in flux," the two conclude. "Its commitment to the representational mission, and the progressive political demands that accompany it, is gaining traction as many find themselves disillusioned with the traditional mission of dispassionately searching for truth."

The irony - and perhaps tragedy - of the DEI statement mandate is that while it might, at least in theory, make UC's faculty more diverse in ethnicity, its conformism will make it even less diverse intellectually.
Dan Walters has been a journalist for nearly 60 years, spending all but a few of those years working for California newspapers. Distributed by CalMatters.org.

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Dan Walters: Does University of California undercut academic freedom?

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Administrations and faculties at University of California campuses are embroiled in a searing controversy over requirements that applicants for faculty positions and candidates for promotion prove their active support, without reservation, of what's called "diversity, equity and inclusion." Candidates must submit "DEI statements" that, under UC's policies, determine whether they will be considered for employment or promotions, regardless of their academic credentials.

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thanks for the on-the-fly checklist. just now, super helpful

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thanks for the on-the-fly checklist. just now, super helpful

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I am wondering what to do about covid protocols in my classroom

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I am wondering what to do about covid protocols in my classroom