Bowling Green State University, a public university in Ohio, recently announced they would be rolling out a pilot program including a diversity and inclusion questionnaire for applicants to the university over the next year.

Any applicant choosing not to answer these questions will be penalized (“docked points”) in the hiring process.

In order to score perfectly, any job applicant must demonstrate a “clear knowledge of, experience with, and interest in dimensions of diversity that result from different identities.”

Julia Desrosiers, a previous campus coordinator for TPUSA and alumnus of Bowling Green State University shared her thoughts on the pilot program with our TPUSA team, including her belief that faculty and students alike should be valued on their merits. “It goes to show that even in one of the more red parts of Ohio, leftist policy and ideology is still taking hold of college administrations. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few months with the policy and the impact it has on the hiring process and the faculty at large,” she shared.

TPUSA chapter President, JT Ysseldyke described her disdain for the program saying, “Bowling Green State University’s recent move to enact diversity scores for faculty applicants is frankly worrisome. BGSU is always striving to be more diverse in ethnicity or race, but it often feels they don’t pursue such goals when it comes to diversity of thought. Over the past year, it has become increasingly difficult for many conservatives on campus to share their thoughts, opinions, and facts in the classroom, among fellow peers, or on-campus itself.”

Ysseldyke also explained what this was like from a student employee perspective, “As a Tour Guide, I would likely have not passed the diversity test because I have strong conservative values that would have been flagged under such test. Additionally, the scores will be determined based off a committee which can be highly irregular and sometimes biased. Having such a diverse campus is one thing that makes BG so successful, but in the pursuit of increasing diversity, we must not lose sight of diversity of thought. Enacting diversity scores would be just one more step the university is taking to erase our past, stifle the present, and guide our future into one of many faces but with the same thoughts and ideas.”

Do you think diversity scores could be implemented in other areas of employment on or off college campuses? How do you feel about them? Share your thoughts with us in the comments! 👇