U.S. State Department plans to suspend 38 of them from its Diplomacy Lab program. This count includes some of the most prestigious institutions in the nation, such as Harvard and Yale, both known for having adopted DEI hiring practices. This decision follows the release of an internal memo dated November 17. The memo lays out the legal criteria for exclusion from the federal research partnership program.
The Diplomacy Lab, authorized in 2013, connects State Department offices with academic researchers to address foreign policy challenges through semester-long projects. The proposed suspension highlights a growing tension between the federal government and universities that implement DEI initiatives in their hiring processes.
The State Department’s memo signals that institutions might be barred for publicly announcing DEI-focused hiring initiatives. The report further explains that implementing DEI goals for candidate pools can result in discrimination. In executive orders, Former President Donald Trump declared diversity programs “illegal” this past January. He directed agencies to make sure that universities that receive federal grants follow through with this directive. The original vaccine compliance certification deadline was April 21.
In July, Columbia University took the unusual step of completely admitting guilt in declaring it would pay more than $200 million to the federal government. They promised to stop using “race, color, sex, or national origin” in hiring decisions in every department. This decision is part of a larger movement of institutions reacting to state and federal government pressure on diversity initiatives.
Perhaps most significantly, the proposal calls for some universities to stay the course in the Diplomacy Lab program. Among these are Columbia University, MIT, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Virginia, and the University of Texas at Austin. The recent, sudden resignation of University of Virginia President James Ryan in June has generated a national uproar. This shift came primarily in the wake of pressure from the Justice Department’s push for reports on the institution’s diversity efforts.
This most recent proposal comes even as the tide appears to be turning on policy perspectives toward DEI initiatives. Majority of institutions under threat of suspension largely target those institutions that embrace a commitment to diversity and inclusion in their hiring practices. This merit-focused approach to hiring practices seems to be the driving force behind this new effort.
That internal memo and spreadsheet laying out these recommendations in excruciating detail were leaked to The Guardian. Through the Framework, the State Department seeks to fundamentally change the way it engages with its research partners. It intends to ground these modifications on adherence to established equitable hiring procedures.