Education expert calls similar programs an ‘illegal scheme’

Engineers are about math, design and safety.  At UC Riverside, they are about being the best racist they can be.

“The University of California Riverside will “expand efforts to diversify its engineering faculty” with the help of over $500,000 from the university system.

The “Building a Pipeline for Diverse Future Faculty in UCR’s College of Engineering” initiative aims to recruit diverse faculty by mentoring potential candidates and encouraging them to consider a career in academia, according to a news release.

However, several higher education experts have raised concerns about potential legal problems with the program.

I guess the Trump Administration will cut off UC Riverside for its attempt to make racist engineers.  Personally, I would not hire an engineer who went through the UC Riverside while learning to be good little racists.

UC Riverside receives $500K to ‘diversify’ engineering faculty

Jenna Triplett, The College Fix,  4/9/25    https://www.thecollegefix.com/uc-riverside-receives-500k-to-diversify-engineering-faculty/

Education expert calls similar programs an ‘illegal scheme’

The University of California Riverside will “expand efforts to diversify its engineering faculty” with the help of over $500,000 from the university system.

The “Building a Pipeline for Diverse Future Faculty in UCR’s College of Engineering” initiative aims to recruit diverse faculty by mentoring potential candidates and encouraging them to consider a career in academia, according to a news release.

However, several higher education experts have raised concerns about potential legal problems with the program.

The College Fix reached out to Christopher Lynch, dean of UC Riverside’s College of Engineering, via email to ask what he hopes to accomplish through the program and what a diverse engineering faculty would look like in terms of demographics.

Lynch responded on March 16 and said he had drafted a response but needed approval before sending it out. He did not respond to a follow-up email on March 31 requesting an update.

The initiative will partner with the Future Academics and Mentorship Excellence program to mentor “underrepresented” graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and other potential candidates considering a faculty career in engineering.

Funds from the grant will be used to cover expenses for FAME’s two-day Future Faculty Workshop, which provides tools and resources to prepare candidates to enter the academic job market.

The application for FAME’s workshop specifies that “the selection process will not give preferential treatment based on gender identification, race, or ethnicity.”

However, funding for these projects is provided by the Advancing Faculty Diversity Program. The University of California Office of the President created the program with the goal of “transforming the professoriate of the future” and promoting “an equitable academic culture for all.”

Gail Heriot, professor of law at the University of San Diego and member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, expressed concern over the exclusionary nature of these types of programs in emailed comments to The Fix.

“We see a lot of programs like these today, where the written materials studiously avoid using terms like ‘race,’ ‘sex,’ or ‘ethnicity,’ and sometimes even say in the fine print that no discrimination on those bases will take place,” Heriot said.

“Still, many, like this program, use buzzwords like ‘diverse,’ ‘equity,’ and ‘underrepresented graduate students’ or, again like this one, state that a ‘commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion’ is an eligibility requirement,” Heriot told The Fix.

Heriot believes this is an “intentional” move by universities to discourage certain students from participating.

“That sends a message to many students that the program isn’t intended for them,” Heriot said. “In some cases, I think it’s intentional.”

Other higher education experts have questioned the university’s compliance with President Trump’s recent executive orders and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Adam Kissel, a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy specializing in higher education reform, suggests that the university take action to avoid potential legal action.

“Programs that treat people differently by race or sex, or that have intended outcomes that differ by race or sex, are usually illegal,” Kissel told The Fix via email. He served in the first Trump administration as deputy assistant secretary for higher education program.

“UC Riverside needs to make clear that ‘underrepresented’ has nothing whatsoever to do with race or sex if it wants to avoid potential civil rights complaints and lawsuits,” Kissel said.

He also points out that UC Riverside’s program is evidence of a larger trend in higher education.

“Many universities are starting to hide their discrimination by using proxies for race, which is still an illegal scheme but harder to prove,” Kissel said. “The context of UCR’s longstanding ‘diversity’ programs suggests that this is exactly what UCR is doing.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly threatened to pull funding from universities that fail to comply with executive orders barring discrimination on the basis of race.

In light of this, the UC Board of Regents recently made the decision to “eliminate any required diversity statements for new hires,” according to a statement from UC Board of Regents Chair Janet Reilly.

The faculty engineering program will be led by Ahmed Eldawy, associate professor and equity advisor for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Rajiv Gupta, associate dean for academic personnel, and College of Engineering Dean Christopher Lynch.

The Fix reached out to the program directors individually via email to ask what they hope to accomplish and if they had concerns that the program might draw scrutiny in light of the Trump administration’s crackdown on affirmative action.

Eldawy and Gupta have not responded to the email or a follow-up call to request comment in the past week.

In addition to the workshop, funds from the grant will be used to hire support staff for new faculty hires. This includes family advocates whose role is to help faculty “in balancing their career and personal lives.”

The Advancing Faculty Diversity Program began in 2016 and has since funded DEI initiatives across all 10 campuses in the University of California system.

The Fix contacted UC Riverside Communications Manager Imran Ghori and UC System Senior Media Relations Officer Omar Rodriguez via email to ask about concerns that the program is recruiting on the basis of race or sex.

They have not responded to the initial email or a follow-up email in the past week.

A grant awarded to UC Riverside in 2023 was titled “Using a Cluster Hire of Diversity-Invested Faculty to Integrate Biology and Social Justice Teaching.”

The proposal states that the funds would be used to hire “three diversity-invested faculty” and “develop an empowering and educational Biology in Society core curriculum and sustainable systems of evaluation.”

In addition, UC San Diego received funds for a Latinx Cluster Hire Initiative aimed at increasing Hispanic representation among faculty.

The grant will be used to address the “disproportionate underrepresentation of Latinx faculty” and “weak presence and availability of course curricula that address the Latinx diaspora, domestic historical context and migration experience.”