The hottest DEI Policy Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Education Topics
OpenTheBooks Substack • 121 implied HN points • 22 Dec 25
  1. Universities get growing federal research dollars plus large overhead payments that have fueled administrative bloat and pulled resources away from core scientific work.
  2. Science faces reproducibility problems and many recent graduates lack the practical job skills employers want, revealing a gap between academic priorities and workforce needs.
  3. Grant rules requiring “broader impacts” and targeted outreach (including DEI goals) shift money and faculty time toward programs and administration instead of direct research.
Unsafe Science • 109 implied HN points • 21 Nov 25
  1. A major faculty organization has shifted from defending academic freedom to taking partisan progressive positions. Examples include endorsing DEI-based faculty evaluations, permitting academic boycotts, and supporting divestment actions.
  2. A century-old warning said academic freedom should not be used as a shelter for uncritical partisanship, because that breeds outside intervention and damage to universities. Current policies show that warning coming true by inviting controversies that harm internal order and public standing.
  3. These partisan moves carry real risks: DEI criteria can be vague and unevidenced, boycotts are likely to be applied selectively, and divestment campaigns can be hypocritical and damaging to a university's reputation. Such outcomes may undermine, rather than protect, academic freedom.
OpenTheBooks Substack • 13 implied HN points • 10 Feb 26
  1. Outside contractors and professional groups are being used to push equity-focused DEI ideas and to turn students into advocates, including guidance that affirms students' gender identities.
  2. Agency staff appear to resist White House anti-DEI directives by renaming programs (for example calling SEL “resilience”) and using contractors and societies as a backdoor to keep the same practices in place.
  3. Parents and policymakers need full transparency of training materials, contracts, and curricula so officials can review partners, cancel misaligned agreements, and rebuild trust.
Who is Robert Malone • 20 implied HN points • 17 Jan 26
  1. DEI and 'woke' ideology are now deeply embedded in medical schools and professional organizations, shaping what is taught and how clinicians speak and act.
  2. That influence shifts admissions and hiring toward demographic and ideological criteria instead of pure merit, and it encourages obedience to protocol over independent medical judgment—critics say this helped spread problematic COVID-era guidance.
  3. Proposed responses include using legal and regulatory means to curb guild power and restore merit-based standards, while patients uncomfortable with current trends may need to seek alternative providers who reject DEI-driven practices.
Who is Robert Malone • 13 implied HN points • 01 Jan 26
  1. The AAMC and its partners effectively control who becomes a doctor and what doctors learn by dominating admissions, accreditation, exams, and licensing, functioning like a modern guild that enforces uniform standards.
  2. Diversity, equity, and inclusion and related ideological frameworks have been deeply embedded into medical curricula, funding, and accreditation through semantic rebranding and alternative funding, allowing these programs to persist despite political pushback.
  3. During COVID and afterward the AAMC–AMA–NBME–FSMB alliance centralized messaging and enforcement to suppress dissent, and those same control mechanisms are being repurposed for new areas like climate and AI amid close federal and corporate ties that critics say warrant legal scrutiny.
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