We explore the issue of exclusion in academic institutions in Canada, with a focus on Computer Science. Academic culling in our research is the active (intentional or unintentional) removing of plurality from universities through requiring compelled speech, or placing (new) barriers to academic appointments to serve ideological/political/religious purposes [in this case, so-called "diversity, inclusion, and equity" (DIE)]. Namely, we study a (new) practice that discriminates against academics that do not value or wish to pursue goals of DIE, or academics that abstain on the basis of academic principles/standards.
Our interest in this topic largely came as a result of observing incongruities in our professional experiences in inclusion and those of DIE. There are many grounded and reasoned ways one may disagree with DIE and its methods; whether one agrees or disagrees with DIE, a concerning trend has grown in public Canadian universities of overstepping the boundary of respecting the intellectual autonomy of academics. Have our public universities focused so hard on identity and related political/ideological pursuits, that they have an identity crisis? What does this mean for the next generation of students, our academics, and the future of scientific research in Canada?
If you are here, you likely have heard the above phrase before. For those unfamiliar with DIE: "Woke in Plain English" by Peter Boghossian
We focus on what we call DIE pledges, a term for requiring applicants or academics more broadly give their commitment to DIE in some form: As a job requirement, a statement, or, to participate as an activist. Fundamentally, like other ideological pledges built on non-academic requirements (or even anti-academic requirements, as in this case), pledges such as these are an afront to intellectual autonomy of academics and violate the merit principle.
The following is a preliminary investigation based on our 5+ year study of this topic. We monitored job advertisements posted on CS-Can and other Canadian institutions, that may require a Computer Science PhD. The primary focus was monitoring CS-Can, where job advertisements for faculty positions in Computer Science Departments in Canada are regularly posted. Concerning increases in these practices have occurred.
To the best of our knowledge, our work is the first attempt to document/report this in Canadian STEM fields.
Essay on concerns around DIE pledges (by Mark Mercer, Professor of Philosopher and Past President of The Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship (2013-2023)): "Swear Allegiance to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion or Don't Get Hired"
We thank The Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship (SAFS) for archiving many of the incidents we reported in this academic research.
Some other resources on related matters:
Acknowledgements:
This research along with other educational, academic projects, and multimedia projects were supported via the public on Patreon. Consider supporting this hard work and support our attempts to improve Computer Science education, discover/explore issues such as this, and produce more multimedia! Check out our YouTube channel for more and how you can support this work! Note we do have alternative channels than these for support, just reach out!
Click Here For the Slides of the Academic Presentation (December 2023 presentation)
New Presentation Slides:
Data Sets
Reported DIE Pledges: CSV, TSV | Reported Restricted/Preferential Hiring: CSV, TSV
Summary Google Sheet/Spreadsheet (contains up to date results)
2. (NEW) Canada Research Chair Searches 2023 - STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) minus Social/Medical, Restricted/Preferential Hiring and DIE Pledges July 2023 - end of December 2023. (complete data set, August 30, 2024)
Summary Google Sheet/Spreadsheet (complete data set)
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.31870.40003
Credit to Burgess, for the initial construction of the CRC Searches 2023 data set; it was used to create/specialize ours.
Incidents of DIE Pledges and Restricted/Preferential Hiring are occurring more often than before in Computer Science academic job advertisements. You can click on each chart to view it in a new tab.
Definitions:
First data set results: Total job advertisements documented, requiring DIE pledges [see my most recent presentation slides for updated versions of these figures]:
Of those job ads that were posted on CS-Can for the period, below are the frequencies of reported ads requiring DIE pledges:
Of the documented observed CS-Can ads for the period, below are the frequencies of reported ads for tenure-track positions (includes Canada Research Chair), requiring DIE pledges:
Documented/reported incidents of preferential/restricted hiring (overall):
By the nature of our research, it is based on reported/documented cases; the data set is technically incomplete. If you know of more CS academic positions (and have documentation of them), you may let us know here using the following form to help us document more incidents: https://forms.gle/pJQhCB3MhpTRwfsq6
In addition to the above preliminary results, we conclude that:
Results from second data set: Our second set of results and data set concern Canada Research Chair (CRC) positions in STEM fields that do not include Social Sciences, Health Sciences, and Medical Sciences. Our data set, which specializes the one by Burgess, contains every CRC job advertisement in these fields from July 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023. You can find Burgess's article here: "It's Time To Stop The Double Talk Around Diversity Hiring." Chronicle of Higher Education.
We were concerned with what could loosely be called the "hard, physical, mathematical/formal sciences, and engineering," which are often perceived/believed at times [by the public] to be largely void of ideological capture. We specialized Burgess's data set, added secondary sources, and when we limited the advertisements to the fields in question, we included a field that indicates if the institution required a DIE pledge in its advertisements/positions.
Below is a table with our findings. We counted up numbers of CRC searches/positions engaging in different DIE-related practices. Note that "not explicit" does not imply none of the practices are occurring, it just means the practice is not known to be explicitly required of the applicant based on the advertisement and its application process.
Positions/Searches - CRC STEM (less Social/Health/Medical), Jul 1 - Dec 31, 2023
|
|||
Result in Question: |
# |
Total |
% |
Restricted Hiring |
10 |
24 |
41.67% |
Preferential Hiring |
3 |
24 |
12.50% |
Not Explicit |
11 |
24 |
45.83% |
Total Restricted and/or Preferential Hiring |
13 |
24 |
54.17% |
DIE pledges |
16 |
24 |
66.67% |
DIE pledges (omit unverified (U)*) |
16 |
21 |
76.19% |
Positions/Searches - CRC Computer Science, Jul 1 - Dec 31, 2023
|
|||
Restricted Hiring |
2 |
5 |
40.00% |
Preferential Hiring |
1 |
5 |
20.00% |
Not Explicit |
2 |
5 |
40.00% |
Total Restricted and/or Preferential Hiring |
3 |
5 |
60.00% |
DIE pledges |
4 |
5 |
80.00% |
DIE pledges (omit unverified (U)*) |
4 |
4 |
100.00% |
We conclude that our results nearly match Burgess's results, even for this specific subset of STEM fields. That is, slightly above 54% of the advertisements imposed preferential or restricted hiring on applicants, whereas Burgess found ~55% did in all fields. In addition, we discovered that at least 66-76% of the advertisements required DIE pledges. Specifically in Computer Science, at least 80-100% of the advertisements required DIE pledges, and the practice of preferential/restricted hiring was employed at least 60% of the time.
*Advertisements marked U were marked as "unclear" or "unverified", as the advertisement did not explicitly name DIE but may be seen as "close enough" to some. In our results, we did not include advertisements marked U as part of those with DIE pledges.
For academic questions, or if there are any typos to report: drpage@pagewizardgames.com
If a data set is cited, please refer to this page by its title or cite the applicable data set as, per appropriate format:
Page, D.R., Preliminary Data Set Reporting Preferential Hiring and DIE pledges in Canadian Computer Science Academic Job Advertisements. PageWizard Games, Learning & Entertainment. 2023. https://pagewizardgames.com/diepledge/
Page, D.R., Canada Research Chair Searches 2023 - STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) minus Social/Medical, Restricted/Preferential Hiring and DIE Pledges July 2023 - end of December 2023. PageWizard Games, Learning & Entertainment. 2024. https://pagewizardgames.com/diepledge/ . http://dx.doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.31870.40003