The Algorithmic Arm Race: How Justice Became a Business in Post-Covid-19 Higher Education

Abstract

The racial reckoning of 2020, alongside the collective trauma of the global Covid-19 pandemic, led to a proliferation of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) offerings within the US higher education system. At the same time, university social justice spaces found a reduction in their staffing, restriction of their work, and an increase of outsourced DEI contributions from non-justice focused locations. This research based, and semi-autobiographical chapter situated Buolamwini's work on coded bias, is grounded in the work of Spivak and Butler, and O'Neil's contributions on mathematical mismanagement. It charts the systematic dismantling of social justice efforts at one mid-sized regional public university as their work was replaced with invalidated and outsourced DEI efforts and gamed with numerical retention requirements, which did little to remedy the genuine inequity built within higher education systems. This chapter offers inferences regarding what those changes mean for inclusion efforts within higher education writ large, particularly with regard to students with marginalized identities (queer, trans, and BIPOC students) who face systemic oppression in the higher education system.

Citation

Jennrich, J. (2023), "The Algorithmic Arm Race: How Justice Became a Business in Post-Covid-19 Higher Education", Jean-Marie, G. and Tran, H. (Ed.) Leadership in Turbulent Times (Studies in Educational Administration), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83753-494-420231001