Some researchers claim that the list includes offers that aren’t DEI.
Some researchers are critical of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s investigation into “diversity, equity, and inclusion” offers from the National Science Foundation, with one claiming the study was” sloppy” and meant to “terrify a bunch of people.”
A full list of the over 3,400 NSF grants awarded under the Biden administration that support “questionable projects that promoted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ( DEI ) or advanced neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda,” according to a recent news release from Cruz.
More than$ 2 billion has been allocated to these grants overall. Cruz conducted an investigation into the grants next drop, but the entire list was not included.
The findings are in support of President Donald Trump’s most new administrative order, which ended La spending by the federal government, according to the Texas legislator and other Republican lawmakers. The NSF announced that it would evaluate the offers it has been funding as a result of this professional order.
Bethany Stevens, Cruz’s spokesman, pointed The College Fix to a give about” White Supremacy” and “privilege” in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics classes when contacted about the collection.
According to the information she provided to The Fix in a recent email,” Georgia Tech” Kelly Cross received$ 99, 791 from NSF to “disrupt racialized privilege in the STEM classroom” in response to her acknowledgment that” Whiteness and White Supremacy are deeply ingrained in the past, present, and future of U.S. Higher education.”
With the aid of the grant, the senator’s office claimed that the senators sought to” subvert these toxic systems… to create ] a more equitable educational system” and “initiate a national conversation about addressing racial inequity and White Supremacy in the STEM profession and classroom.”
Another grant that was identified in the database was awarded to San Jose State University for a project to “empower ] teachers and students as climate justice action researchers and change agents.” The award was for$ 401, 744.
But, Augustin Fuentes, a professor of archaeology at Princeton University, stated in a phone call that Cruz’s primary objective is to “terrify a bunch of people.”
Fuentes claimed that the NSF’s acceptance of grants is a multi-step approach. According to him, “every five decades there is a review of the entire operation, where a bunch of older researchers and scientists do a meta-review for three times of all the offers.”
According to Fuentes,” What made me crazy about Cruz’s point was that they weren’t trained.” Because those analyzing the money don’t seem to have been taught how to evaluate academic grants, he claimed the research Cruz’s team conducted was” sloppy”
He claimed that Cruz’s team largely ignored the difficult approval procedures and broader objectives and looked for keywords when compiling the list.
Fuentes continued, claiming that the offers had been misunderstood.
He claimed that the NSF required you to possess “broader effect” in order to be eligible for a grant. ” Those components are present. They simply used different words to describe what Cruz’s group did.
The Fix questioned Fuentes about whether he thought the offers contained “neo-Marxist perspectives or Della tenets.” He vehemently refrained from saying,” No, I don’t. Yet the meaning of that is beyond me.
Another academic, natural anthropology Ed Hagen, from Washington State University, pointed to a give that Cruz’s office claimed mislabeled as DEI.
In a X post, Hagan shared a duplicate of the abstract, saying,” Anyone in classic anthro can see this task tests leading classic theories of social transmission.”
This NSF grant ( one of my students ‘ DDIGs ) “promoted Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ( DEI ) or advanced neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda,” according to Ted Cruz.
Anyone interested in evoanthropology can view this project’s examination of the most popular classic theories of social transmission: pic. twitter.com/k32EwdboET
— Ed Hagen ( @ed_hagen ) February 13, 2025
According to him, the” Broader Effect” section, which is required by Congress, contains the majority of the diversity content in grant proposals.
In a new article on X, Joseph Henrich, a professor of human adaptive biology at Harvard University, claimed Cruz “might simply be using a forbidden term’word search.”
Fuentes claimed for The Fix that stopping the offers may include a significant impact.
” The NSF provides funding for a lot of things, such as grants, which enable]universities to pay their academics and staff’s salaries or stipends.” Individuals who’s jobs depend on these offers are “out of work,” he said.
Some universities are stepping up in an effort to replace the grant, Fuentes said, but that negates the entire purpose of the federal funding.
Fuentes was questioned by The Fix about why he thinks Cruz is taking this up. He responded,” He has a special agenda.” He dislikes a particular kind of research, he says.
Cruz’s company did not respond to a follow-up email from The Fix this week asking if the academics ‘ criticism of the offers may be revised.
Another academics have come out in opposition to the findings, claiming that the record exposes “ideological education” masquerading as science.
” And this is only the tip of the iceberg,” he says. Anna Krylov, a pharmacist from the University of Southern California, recently told The Fix.
The intellectual, non-scientific criteria are also applied to financing of complex projects, according to Krylov when the analysis was released last fall, or the both.
Cruz also cited the analysis to urge Congress to stop” the politicization of NSF financing and restore dignity to medical research.”
In a recent article on X, the legislator wrote that” DE I efforts have poisoned study efforts, eroded trust in the medical community, and fueled section among Americans.”
A University of Colorado initiative aimed at “identifying learning experiences that enable architecture for cultural fairness” and a job at UC Berkeley and University of South Florida to fight anti-black prejudice in executive courses were other grants identified in the analysis.
Extra:” Feminist mapping” LGBTQ cartoonists: Days before Trump became president, NEH funded DEI grants
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