Testimony Before the Ohio Senate Higher Education Committee

Renu Mukherjee testified in a hearing before the Ohio Senate Higher Education Committee.

Watch the full testimony here.

Good afternoon [____]. My name is Renu Mukherjee, and I am a Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a think tank dedicated to advancing opportunity, individual liberty, and the rule of law in America and its great cities. I am also a Ph.D. candidate in political science. My research focuses on the restoration of colorblindness, merit, and the pursuit of excellence in American higher education. Accordingly, I am here today to speak in support of Senate Bill 1.

In 2023, the United States Supreme Court, after 45 years, outlawed the consideration of race in university admissions, a practice commonly known as “affirmative action.” This practice rewarded so-called “underrepresented minorities” on account of their race and penalized white and Asian American students in violation of both the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act; it is the foundation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in higher education and beyond. In striking down affirmative action, the Supreme Court iterated the following principle: “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”

Unfortunately, many universities, including in Ohio, have chosen to ignore this principle of colorblindness. They have continued to discriminate on the basis of race in admissions, in faculty hiring, and in the classroom. Just last week, my Manhattan Institute colleague John Sailor uncovered how two deans at Ohio State University (OSU) green lit the use of racial and gender preferences in faculty hiring. In a separate piece, he noted that OSU, at one point, required applicants for positions in the STEM fields of freshwater biology and astrophysics to submit “diversity statements” pledging fealty to DEI.

Click here to read the full testimony.

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Renu Mukherjee is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.