This book contends that diversity statements should not be required by public universities.

After providing an overview of the nature of diversity statements, it argues that such statements should not be required by public universities for the following reasons: (i) they encourage people to dissemble, (ii) they involve applicants in many hours of work with no clear benefit, and (iii) they are political, and the making of political statements should not be required to work at a public university.

A parallel is then drawn with the hypothetical idea of free speech statements requiring applicants to show how they had worked to enhance free speech in the past, and how they plan to enhance free speech in the future. Such statements would likely be viewed as both political and unnecessary. But free speech is at least as important as diversity and so free speech statements have at least as much claim to being made mandatory as diversity statements.

The Case Against Diversity Statements in Higher Education is essential reading for all scholars, researchers, and advanced students of moral, political, and social philosophy. It is also of interest to all academics asked to help administer diversity statements. 

Perry Hendricks is a Fellow at The Romanell Center for Clinical Ethics and the Philosophy of Medicine, University at Buffalo.