The University of California system has been using unlawful diversity statements in some of its faculty searches, as we have discussed previously, but some PhD programs also require them from applicants for admission.  Those are also likely unlawful.  There is a public interest legal foundation interested in representing plaintiffs (without charge) who have been rejected for PhD admission at a UC campus (or a public university campus elsewhere with a similar requirement) and suspect it was because of an inadequate "diversity" statement (e.g., because you wrote about intellectual diversity, without mentioning race or gender).  If you were admitted to comparable or stronger programs that did not require diversity statements that is certainly relevant to whether you were rejected for illegal reasons.  Please contact the attorney Daniel Ortner with questions.

I want to reiterate that you can support affirmative action (as I do for certain groups), and still categorically reject "loyalty" oaths as a condition of employment or admission.