CounterCurrent: Week of 09/09/2024
Scandal has engulfed the University of Washington (UW) yet again. In an audio recording acquired by the National Association of Scholars (NAS), UW is facing new allegations of covering up discriminatory hiring practices.
Last year, NAS reported that UW utilized race as a major factor in hiring decisions. John D. Sailer initially unearthed the scandal surrounding the Department of Psychology's Diversity Advisory Committee through public records requests, and revealed that they “pressured one hiring committee to re-rank finalist candidates on the basis of race.”
A quick refresher on the backstory. The UW University Complaint Investigation and Resolution Office (UCIRO) conducted an internal investigation, and determined that the psychology department violated UW’s Executive Order 31—i.e., “the university ‘will recruit, hire, train, and promote individuals’ without regard to demographic categories like race, color, and sex.” As a result of UCIRO’s findings, the Department of Psychology was barred from tenure track hiring for two academic years. Additionally, in a meeting discussing the UCIRO’s findings, UW leadership declared the case study report—Promising Practices for Increasing Equity in Faculty Searches—which was sponsored and widely circulated by the UW administration, and utilized by the psychology department as a metric in hiring decisions, was inconsistent with UW’s nondiscrimination policy. Ironic.
Now, new information has surfaced from UW, and it seems the scandal could not be neatly swept under the rug.
At a UW departmental meeting where several of the school’s deans were in attendance, psychology professor Ione Fine bluntly states over a chorus of objections from attendees that “There has been a pattern, a long-standing pattern, of illegal hiring in this university that was tacitly encouraged across the upper and central administration.” Fine alleges that the university knew of the discriminatory, race-based hiring practices and that the psychology department’s re-rank of candidates last year was encouraged by several deans and high level administrators—specifically Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement Chadwick Allan and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Dianne Harris, in addition to the Dean of Natural Sciences Daniel Pollack.
Professor Fine was the initial whistle blower at UW.
Fine claimed the university’s investigation only began after it received a public records request regarding the search from the National Association of Scholars. ‘It was only after the freedom of information request came in, and it was clear that the illegal emails of the [diversity advisory committee] would eventually become public, that the central administration decided a CIRO was required,’ she stated. The university has previously denied that the NAS request prompted its investigation.
The latest developments out of UW, and Fine’s speech at the departmental meeting, signal a larger trend at UW, and a problem that plagues higher education. UW leadership and upper level administration may have avoided initial scrutiny by slapping the psychology department on the wrist and outwardly condemning their own diversity case study, but the point remains that they pushed for diversity hiring in the first place and then condemned a department for adhering to it.
Fine did not hold back on calling out UW leadership—the full audio can be found in the latest article by Sailer.
Professor Fine addressed the aforementioned leadership and deans for their active roles in covering up their involvement in the psychology department debacle. One such example is when Fine addressed Dean Harris and stated, “You, Dean Harris, deliberately manipulated the CIRO investigation with the goal of deliberately scapegoating the department in order to hide the involvement of upper administration. This strategy was endorsed at the highest levels, including the Board of Regents.” Other deans and leadership did not avoid scathing allegations by Fine during the meeting. She continued on, stating that “This coverup is ongoing. For example UW is currently trying to avoid meeting legal public records requirements.”
More faculty members should follow Fine’s lead in exposing corruption within their institutions, and universities should abandon race-based hiring practices. If Fine’s allegations prove true, it is crucial that UW administration and leadership are held accountable. However, as it stands, scapegoating and cover-ups appear to be prevalent at the University of Washington—at least until the truth comes to light behind closed doors.
Until next week.
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, written by the NAS Staff. To subscribe, update your email preferences here.
Photo by Daniel von Appen on Unsplash
