Education

Students Pressured University Not To Hire Professor Who Questioned ‘Diversity’. Then He Didn’t Get The Job

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Yoel Inbar, professor of psychology at Toronto University, was denied a job at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) after dozens of psychology students demanded that he not be hired after making statements questioning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Inbar was in talks with UCLA for a tenured position in the psychology department, but several graduate students sent a letter to UCLA psychology professors recommending they not hire Inbar over his positions on DEI statements, Inbar said an episode of the “Very Bad Wizards” podcast. The students said they were “concerned” with Inbar’s skepticism of DEI statements, which in their eyes, disqualified him for a position at the university, according to the letter, shared by John Sailer, Director of University Policy at the National Association of Scholars.

Dozens of psych students signed this letter demanding UCLA not hire Dr. Yoel Inbar. After that, he didn’t get the job offer he was almost certainly going to receive.

His main offense: expressing skepticism about DEI statements. In his words, “It is not clear what good they do.” pic.twitter.com/piV6BwXUvh

— John Sailer (@JohnDSailer) June 28, 2023

“It seems likely that this email caused the committee to say this is just too much headache for us. Why borrow trouble, right? We can always hire someone else,” Inbar said near the end of the episode.

Inbar confirmed that he did not get the job from UCLA but said the university did not give him a reason in an email to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Sorry, happy to confirm facts but I’d rather not speculate on the record,” he told the DCNF.

The professor is a host of the podcast “Two Psychologists Four Beers,” where he has expressed skepticism about the validity of DEI statements and of anti-racist policies in psychology associations, according to the podcast’s website.

“They sort of seem like administrator value signaling. It’s not clear what good they do, how they’re going to be used,” Inbar said in one episode, adding that they appear to signal a “certain set of beliefs.”

The students highlighted this statement in the letter, stating that it conflicts with the stated DEI values of UCLA. They argued that, for those reasons, Inbar should not be hired.

“We feel that the serious consideration of Dr. Inbar directly conflicts with the values and standards we uphold as an institution committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” the letter reads.

“Given the express priority of our university to consider DEI efforts and experiences in the faculty search and hiring process, we are adamant that the hiring committee… not extend a job offer to Dr. Yoel Inbar,” the students say in the letter.

The University of California, Los Angeles, did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.