University document seeks faculty that ‘speaks, acts, and dresses’ to connect with minority students

A public university in Indiana’s new guidelines for inclusive hiring emphasizes equity credentials over traditional merit — and even suggests new professors should talk, dress and act “in ways that authentically resonate” with racial minorities.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis’s Office of Academic Affairs issued a document obtained by Fox News Digital that outlines “Inclusive Faculty Search Practices” to improve hiring, advising committees should “move away from abstract conceptions of ‘merit’ and ‘fit.”

“Merit and fit are social constructions grounded in dominant understandings of ‘which professional qualifications are deemed worthy, and which personal attributes and styles are deemed suitable for a position,’” the guidance states. 

In one section, the guidance contrasts “traditional fit” values and “equity-minded fit” values, saying traditional prospective worker would approach learning “as an individual enterprise in which students are responsible for their success or failure” while an “equity-minded” fit would include prioritizing the “knowledge and needs of racially minoritized students” while viewing learning as “a collaborative enterprise.”

The document urges “hiring attention to equity and inclusion” and closing “equity gaps.”

The document goes on to detail “traditional merit” vs. “equity-minded merit,” and defined “training,” “experience,” “research” and “teaching” with different meanings when examined through the lens of “traditional merit” and “equity-minded merit.”

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It defines traditional merit with common hiring qualifications, such as number of years working in leadership roles, variety of courses previously taught, and number of publications featured in top-tier, peer-reviewed journals. 

Under equity-minded merit, potential hires are evaluated based on their experience “creating, organizing, and/or leading programs for minoritized groups,” “publications that examine the issues of race and racial equity,” “experience teaching and mentoring racially minoritized students,” including authors in syllabi who come from “minoritized groups” and “experience using culturally relevant pedagogies.”

Traditionally, “training” is defined as potential hires who earned degrees from elite universities and have experience working with well-known programs. Under equity-minded merit, “training” is defined as potential hires who are trained in racial equity and social justice work, and who have experience with “self-reflection and willingness to reflect on racialized outcomes of practice.”

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The public research university collaborates with both Indiana University and Purdue University – the state’s two largest schools – and offers courses and degrees from the universities. Established in 1969, the school has grown to enroll roughly 20,000 students, and is ranked nationally as the 202nd best school, according to U.S. News & World Report. 

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As a collaboration university, the school is home to the largest medical school in the country: Indiana University School of Medicine.

Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, a retired professor and the former associate dean for curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, examined the document and described that it sets a dangerous precedent that “insults everyone” while speaking “in code.”

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“They wish to hire faculty for Black students. It is hard to imagine they would consider a White applicant given that they believe that White teachers have bias against Black students. This insults everyone,” Goldfarb told Fox News Digital. 

Goldfarb currently serves as the board chair of Do No Harm, a group of health care professionals, medical students and policymakers working to “protect healthcare from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology.”

Goldfarb continued that the hiring practices “diminishes all White applicants as unable to relate to Black students.”

“It sullies the social capacity of Black students as unable to relate to white teachers,” he went on. “And it assumes that every other racial group such as East Asian or South Asian students or faculty are completely irrelevant to the discussion. Finally, it promotes the racial segregation of healthcare that seems to now be the goal of [diversity, equity and inclusion] programs. This despite the complete lack of evidence that this approach will do anything to improve health care disparities in clinical outcomes.”

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The guidance on hiring practices also includes definitions of “values,” “identities,” “leisure pursuits” and “self-presentation” and compares their meanings through a traditional lens as well as in an “equity-minded” focus. 

Officials with the school did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on the document and Goldfarb’s criticisms.