Protecting the soft underbelly of the social justice movement at an elite STEM university grounded on objective standards and a rigorous core curriculum is a serious challenge given the inherent conflict between identity “equity” and scientific excellence. It’s not enough to hire dozens of DEI deans, assistant deans, deputy deans, and administrative officers to remake the culture, none of whom could make it through freshman year. Excellence must be made inclusive.

MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Socialist Sciences, an erstwhile secondary service transformed into an auto-immune disease, is rising to the task. Having failed to eliminate the racist math SAT as an entrance requirement, cunning linguists are pivoting to reengineer the meaning of excellence, hoping to do to STEM what postmodernism did to art.

So, let the gaslighting begin! “Excellence does not mean what you think it means.” Details will emerge as ideological trial balloons work their magic. If they can redefine what a woman is, they can do anything.