‘UC needed to show signs it was listening to the Trump administration’
The University of California announced late on Wednesday that they would be ending the requirement that diversity statements be used in hiring, becoming the latest move away from diversity-based hiring and applying measures at the UC system.
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According to a letter by UC provost Katherine Newman, the UC Board of regents directed UC President Michael Drake to end diversity statements. Diversity statements, which are usually around two pages added into an application that outlines an applicants experience in working with people from different backgrounds and how they would advance diversity and inclusivity, have been around for several years within the UC system. Despite this, Newman wrote that the University of California can still be diverse without the use of such statements.
“The system’s board of regents has directed UC President Michael Drake to ensure that diversity statements are no longer required” for new applicants,” said Newman on Wednesday. “The requirement to submit a diversity statement may lead applicants to focus on an aspect of their candidacy that is outside their expertise or prior experience. UC can continue to effectively serve communities from a variety of life experiences, backgrounds, and points of view without requiring diversity statements.”
While the letter did not mention a more specific reason for the change, it was widely seen as a move in response to the Trump Administration’s recent measures over academia. In an announcement on budget cuts on Wednesday, UC President Drake specifically noted Trump administration actions for the growing number of changes at UC, as well as for the UC system instituting hiring freezes and other cost cutting measures because of less funding being available.
“Over the last few months, the new administration in Washington, D.C., has announced a number of executive orders and proposed policy changes, including ones that threaten funding for lifesaving research, patient care, and education support,” said Drake on Wednesday. “These actions affect colleges and universities across the country. Additionally, the 2025-26 California state budget calls for a substantial cut to the University’s budget. As one of the most innovative, research-focused public institutions in the nation, these proposed changes would have a particularly profound impact on the University of California.”
Drake also noted at an emergency meeting with the UC Academic Council earlier this week that changes needed to be made and that “UC needed to show signs it was listening to the Trump administration”.
That move needed to be done sooner or later, as the Trump administration outright halted $400 million in funding and grants to Columbia University for failing to protect Jewish students earlier this month. As the U.S. Department of Education announced last month that it would be working to end racial preferences in admissions, hiring, promotions, and other areas in Universities, ending the use of diversity statements has been seen as a way of complying so that action isn’t taken against them similar to what happened at Columbia.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
They know who the applicants are and their background including race.
Would you hire a mechanic without reviewing his background and experience? Faculty is part of publish or parish law. A deep dive into the academic credit will clearly show who and what.
But then again the State has a law prohibiting admission based upon race. Did not stop the radicals in the academic senate from pressuring exactly that to happen.
Stop the statements? Great. Now fire every faculty that was hired with that in their application… including tenured.