Students and faculty at Michigan State University are calling for the removal of Stephen Hsu, the university’s vice president for research and innovation, over his research on intelligence. Hsu has fired back at students and others calling for his dismissal: “The Twitter mobs want to suppress scientific work that they find objectionable. What is really at stake: academic freedom, open discussion of important ideas, scientific inquiry. All are imperiled and all must be defended.”
According to a local news report, Michigan State University’s Stephen Hsu is facing calls for his termination over research he conducted on intelligence at the outset of his career.
Hsu was criticized as far back as 2013 for research he conducted on the relationship between race and intelligence for his doctorate dissertation. Yong Chan, research director for the racial justice website ChangeLab, condemned Hsu in 2013 for accepting funding from the Chinese government to conduct research on the biological basis for intelligence.
“Even though mainstream science has pretty much scrapped the notion that race has any kind of biological basis long ago, that hasn’t stopped [Hsu] from trying to link intelligence with race and getting a billion and a half dollars for research based in China,” Chan wrote.
Hsu is also facing criticism for promoting a 2019 study that suggested that there is no racial disparity in rates of police shooting.
A petition with almost 800 signatures has called on Michigan State University to fire Hsu for violating “university values.”
The concerns expressed by the Graduate Employees Union and other individuals familiar with Hsu indicates an individual that cannot uphold our University Mission or our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Given this discordance with university values, Stephen Hsu should not be privileged with the power and responsibility of recruiting and funding scholars, overseeing ethical conduct, or coordinating graduate study.
“The attacks attempt to depict me as a racist and sexist, using short video clips out of context, and also by misrepresenting the content of some of my blog posts. A cursory inspection reveals bad faith in their presentation,” Hsu wrote last week in a statement. “The accusations are entirely false – I am neither racist or sexist.”
Hsu argued that social justice groups work to suppress research when they find its conclusions objectionable. “The Twitter mobs want to suppress scientific work that they find objectionable. What is really at stake: academic freedom, open discussion of important ideas, scientific inquiry. All are imperiled and all must be defended,” Hsu added.
A petition supporting Hsu, with about 1,500 signatures as of this writing, addresses Michigan State President Samuel L. Stanley. According to the letter in support of Hsu, “To remove Hsu for holding controversial views, or for inquiring about controversial topics, or for simply talking to controversial personalities, based on the number of people demanding he be removed and the intensity of their demands would be to capitulate to a pre-enlightenment approach to the academy – and to incentivize the exclusion and ostracism of minority positions. It would also set a dangerous precedent, inconsistent with the fundamental principles of modern enlightened higher education.”
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