To: Thomas M. who wrote (357559 ) 12/18/2025 10:10:09 AM From: Thomas M. Read Replies (1) | Respond to Cornell’s Hiring and Retention Practices Prioritize Identity Over Merit Internal Records Reveal a Covert Discriminatory Hiring Scheme A December 23, 2020, email message from a department chair confirming that the tenure track faculty position in question would be filled through a “diversity hire” process that excluded the great majority of qualified candidates because these persons lacked the targeted identity traits. Candidates were prescreened and selected, then invited one at a time, in a secret process with no advertised position opening to avoid any sense of competition on the part of the prospective candidates. Only individuals with certain favored identity characteristics (race, ethnicity, and/or sex) were considered for employment. (See Exhibit A) A report that a list of 20–30 preselected candidates, compiled purely based on identity screening, was used to guide the process. The scheme called for candidates to be approached sequentially until one accepted the offer. It is estimated that more than 98% of otherwise qualified applicants were excluded from employment consideration based on their disfavored identity characteristics, without these persons ever knowing an open Cornell faculty position existed. Reports of internal meetings in which faculty were discouraged from evaluating candidates on merit. When concerns were raised about the credentials of proposed hires, the Cornell faculty members who questioned the “diversity hire” process were dismissed as “racist,” and no further objections were tolerated. A December 13, 2022, email message discussing another assistant professor search within a STEM academic department states that the department first prescreened candidates solely based on their required diversity statements, eliminating one candidate immediately due to a “weak” DEI narrative. The same email message confirms that more experienced candidates were excluded for “reasons of equity,” regardless of more favorable qualifications. americafirstpolicy.com
