University professors met over Zoom with a former earth sciences professor, Matthew Wilecki, on Tuesday to discuss his departure and his issues with academia.
Wilecki was an assistant professor at the University’s Department of Geological Sciences from 2018-23. He now writes articles and records podcasts for his Substack page, Irrational Fear, that discusses “climate change, culture, and politics.”
When explaining why he left the University, Wilecki said he pushed back against “climate hysteria” and diversity, equity and inclusion policies, primarily regarding graduate admissions.
“The DEI initiative was becoming so big that it was going to start changing major policies, and one of those major policies was we were getting rid of the GRE, for example.”
A study from Boston University’s School of Public Health found that the Graduate Record Examination, a standardized test used to grant admission to many graduate schools, was “not correlated with student success in graduate programs.”
The Department of Geological Sciences stopped requiring the GRE in fall 2020 semester, along with the rest of the programs in the Barefield College of Arts and Sciences. Certain programs in the College of Education, the Culverhouse College of Business, and the Lee J. Styslinger College of Engineering still require the GRE or GMAT.
Wilecki said the department was selective in terms of “who could say what and what could be said.”
“If your intent is for inclusivity and more collaboration, all of these initiatives were having the exact opposite effect,” he said. “I did a couple Fox interviews, and then it became very clear that this was taboo. So, the Department of or the Office of Strategic Communications told me not to come to faculty meetings.”
The University did not respond to a request for comment.
Wilecki left the University in 2023, saying that pushing back against the University at the time was “career suicide.”
Brett Smith, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, asked Wilecki if there was a way to push back “within the paradigm of climate change.”
Wilecki said he believes there is “no evidence” that climate change “is a big threat to human civilization.”
The United Nations’ stance on climate change is that it is a global emergency that will raise global temperatures and increase natural disasters.
Mark Elliot, an associate professor in the Lee J. Styslinger Jr. College of Engineering, said he had “a lot of sympathy” for Wilecki’s experience speaking out for his personal beliefs.
“If you really do want a career in academia and to have that impact, at least pre tenure, you really do have to weigh these things,” he said.
