TCU's DEI and Affirmative Action
Over the last year, we’ve done many pieces of leftism and DEI at TCU, and it runs deep. Now, with stories stretching back over a year, and with the Trump administration cracking down on DEI and Affirmative Action at universities, we thought we should bring you new information on the subject, and revisit our old information for the new readers.
Before we begin, we want to make it clear that we love TCU. We want nothing but success. But we want a school that reflects and honors the traditional Christian background. Last year we wrote many exposés on the DEI at TCU. However, one Trustee asked us to lay off and give them time to correct what they acknowledge is a problem. We agreed and even met with the soon to be Chancellor, Daniel Pullin. We also believe that unless the public knows about it, the institution is less likely to correct it.
This special TCU edition will serve as a comprehensive resource for everything DEI and leftist-related we’ve uncovered at TCU to date. We hope that the Trump Administration picks it up, and forces the university to ditch the DEI. It should be noted that the Administration has already announced investigations into UNT and Rice University for these same issues.
To start: we’ve uncovered a faculty hiring checklist used by TCU Academic Affairs to govern the hiring process for professors and other employees. It mentions DEI over a dozen times. In fact, it gives the school’s DEI officers (yes, TCU has DEI officers) veto power over potential hires!
Here’s a summary of all the ways TCU’s DEI officers get to control the hiring process:
- When the search begins, the search committee must include a Diversity Advocate, who gets to identify candidates. Candidates are required to prove a “demonstrated commitment to diversity and inclusion.”
- The Search Committee is required to confer with the Diversity Advocate to create a Recruitment Plan. Professors are expected to “engage their professional networks” to find DEI candidates.
- Interview questions for the candidates requires approval by the Diversity Advocate. Questions must “elicit experiences” with and commitment to DEI.”
- Assessment rubrics to evaluate the candidates also require approval by the Diversity Advocate.
- If the search is inconclusive, the Hiring Manager must work with the Diversity Advocate to “encourage a more qualified, diverse candidate pool.”
But there’s more. On November 21, 2024, TCU’s “Chief Inclusion Officer” Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado presented the school’s commitment to DEI and Affirmative Action in a faculty-staff meeting.
The purpose of the talk was to ensure that professors follow the party line on DEI - while TCU’s administration has changed the language due to state and federal pressure, Inclusion Officer Jonathan made it very clear that DEI and affirmative action would not be going away.
According to him, red states’ anti-DEI efforts have caused a problem for the school by “criminalizing” DEI language, and faculty need to be prepared to deal with it. He acknowledges that many are souring on the subject, and to fight back, the school must ensure that DEI is not an “appendage,” but rather “woven into the institutional DNA.” It’s clear that this is the case.
He is clear that while “TCU does not expressly promulgate a policy for diversity, equity, and inclusion per se” the school uses the phrase “ inclusive excellence” to avoid the DEI phrase. One slide after making the assertion, Jonathan assures faculty that “inclusive excellence is designed to infuse diversity and inclusion efforts” into the university. He closed out his presentation with a call for TCU to “own the narrative and be willing to defend it.”
If it wasn’t clear enough that TCU was doubling down on DEI and affirmative action, a survey of their website confirms it.
Under the Chancellor’s Office, there is not only one but two, DEI committees. One committee, the “Compliance and Affirmative Action Committee,” consults the Chief Compliance Officer and Affirmative Action Officer to ensure the school continues its mission of affirmative action despite the requirements of the Supreme Court and Trump Administration. An employee from the school’s Institutional Equity program is included in committee membership.
Also listed under the Chancellor’s page is the “Inclusive Excellence Advisory Council” (read, DEI Advisory Council, per the administration’s own words). The purpose of the committee is to monitor “all existing and future initiatives regarding diversity, equity, and inclusiveness on campus” and to make recommendations to the Chancellor on future initiatives, priorities, and practices.
Committee membership includes the school’s Chief Inclusion Officer, Academic Affairs DEI Advocate, and Director of Diversity and Inclusion. They’re not backing away from DEI. They’re doubling down.
The website for the Chancellor’s Office says that the Chancellor “designates two staff members to serve as the University’s Affirmative Action Officer and the deputy.”
The DEI problem exists downstream of the administration as well. The Department of Strategic Communications, for example, explicitly exists as a training ground for DEI activists. One required class within the department is simply called “Diversity,” with the subtitle “Creating Revolution: the Strategic Communication of Social Change.” The final assignment for the class is to create an effective DEI political activism campaign. Students are required to score each other on fellow classmates’ use of effective and appropriate DEI.
The Department even includes all class syllabi a lengthy quote explicitly demonstrating its commitment to DEI. Student learning outcomes for the department include “respecting diversity in all its forms.” Many similar classes to the “diversity” leftist activism class, including “Social Justice Organizing and Activism” can be found on the Strategic Communication Department’s website.
These policies and actions seem to run directly against Trump’s order regarding university DEI policies, and even more concerning, the Supreme Court’s ruling against Affirmative Action.
If you're new here and haven't read past reports on TCU, you can find them below:
Texas Christian University should honor the traditional values it was founded on. DEI is overtly racist and goes against everything the University used to stand for. TCU has drifted far off of that path, but we have some ideas on how we could help. Stay tuned to future updates as we chart a new course for TCU and restore the focus on a Christian worldview and the conservative values that will keep TCU great well into the future.
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