Texas A&M University’s School of Nursing set a threshold for showing a “commitment to diversity and inclusion” to hire faculty, documents show.
A “Handbook for Faculty Search Committee Members” revised in February set diversity, equity, and inclusion standards for recruiting and hiring new faculty members.
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The guidelines encourage having applicants write essays on their “personal commitment to diversity and inclusion” and how it “informs their past and future professional contributions.”
According to the document, which was obtained through a public records request, this shows potential applicants that “diversity and inclusion are core values for your department and college,” adding that hiring committees can set their own standards as to how to weigh commitment to DEI in hiring but to “consider setting a minimally acceptable score for the DEI commitment statement.”
It added that “strong statements” would “demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the key DEI issues in academia as experienced by members of underrepresented groups and provide detailed descriptions of activities and plans,” while “weak statements” would only “demonstrate a simplistic understanding.”
“This is a perfect example of the importance of Gov. [Greg] Abbott [R-TX] signing Senate Bill 17 into law, which contains critical reforms for the restoration of merit and educational standards in higher education in Texas,” Laura Morgan, Do No Harm program manager and nurse of 39 years, told the Washington Examiner. “My concern is that the Texas A&M School of Nursing is racing against the clock to firmly entrench pro-DEI foot soldiers into the faculty prior to the Jan. 1 cutoff date.”
Guidance also suggested that the members of hiring committees be “advocates for diversity, not just women and faculty of color,” adding that “it can be emotionally challenging for women faculty and faculty from historically underrepresented groups to point out bias and discrimination to other committee members.”
For advertising job openings, the guidance also recommends using family-neutral language to be more appealing to “those who identify as LGBT.”
The handbook was published just before Abbott signed a ban on DEI initiatives at colleges, which is set to take effect in January 2024. Texas A&M took early action to come into compliance with the new law by closing its DEI office and discontinuing programs that are not compliant but also said it is transferring resources formerly available in the DEI office to “other areas of the university.”
“I certainly hope that the School of Nursing is equally on board rather than attempting to fortify an ideological perspective that doesn’t comport with producing quality nurses,” Morgan said.
Some faculty members still appear focused on DEI-related issues despite the forthcoming ban.
One such member is assistant professor Arica Brandford, of whom some emails were included in the records request. Brandford has a history of advocating DEI initiatives, and her research is primarily focused on DEI and racism in nursing.
As the Washington Examiner reported, before joining Texas A&M, Brandford also helped create a racially divisive “implicit bias” training for the Kentucky Nurses Association, which appears to have been a source for Kentucky to ax “implicit bias” training as a requirement.
Morgan said Brandford was one such “pro-DEI foot soldier” and that her work for the KNA should have been a “huge red flag” for Texas A&M before her hire but that its hiring practices clouded its judgment.
A Feb. 9 conversation with another faculty member showed her planning a “black history month” theme of “back resistance” in healthcare, while a Feb. 10 email to a redacted recipient showed her getting angry that the Texas A&M nursing school had waited too long to plan a proper black history month.
“Honestly, the [School of Nursing] needs to take a step back, reflect, and do a true need analysis to address the problem not just treat the symptoms,” she wrote. “Black History Month should not be an afterthought, it should be well planned out specially to accomplish the [School of Nursing] vision, mission, values, and strategic plan.”
She added that even though “black history month” is a designated month in the calendar, action must go beyond February, stating, “We should continually be activating change and implementing a multicultural advocacy process.”
She offered some starting points, including “define black resistance” and its application to nursing. “Black resistance recognizes the history of racism in nursing perpetrated against black nurses,” she stated.
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“It is disappointing that the Texas A&M School of Nursing would hire a professor with the ideological beliefs that Arica Brandford has demonstrated she holds,” Morgan said. “It appears that they pursued hiring practices that undermine quality applicants who do not subscribe to concepts that place individuals into groups of ‘oppressed’ and ‘oppressors.'”
Neither the School of Nursing nor Brandford responded to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
