MIT still requires DEI essay of grad students after abandoning faculty pledge

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology still requires a diversity, equity and inclusion essay for some students despite banning DEI faculty statements last spring.

The requirement by MIT’s Sloan School of Management has drawn criticism from scholars, students, and alumni, with some accusing the school of being hypocritical for failing to eliminate all DEI mandates.

Eric Rasmusen, a board director of the MIT Free Speech Alliance, said he is disappointed that the DEI essay is still part of graduate students’ application.

“What the Sloan inquiry about an applicant’s political views shows is that it isn’t enough for a college president to say ‘DEI statements won’t be required’: the message has to get down to the hundreds of low-level bureaucrats who actually run the university,” Rasmusen said in an email interview with The College Fix.