Talk:Abigail Thompson

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography: Science and Academia

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography
	This article is supported by the science and academia work group.

Women

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of women on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.WomenWikipedia:WikiProject WomenTemplate:WikiProject WomenWikiProject Women

Women scientists Mid‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women scientists, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Women in science on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Women scientistsWikipedia:WikiProject Women scientistsTemplate:WikiProject Women scientistsWomen scientists
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Mathematics Mid‑priority

	Mathematics portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Mathematics, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of mathematics on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.MathematicsWikipedia:WikiProject MathematicsTemplate:WikiProject Mathematicsmathematics
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-priority on the project's priority scale.

A controversy about diversity

Thompson wrote op-eds for the AMS and WSJ criticising how her university treated diversity statements in recruitment, which has created some fuss and provoked a response from the chancellor and VC of UC Davis.

https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/201911/rnoti-p1778.pdf
https://felleisen.org/matthias/Articles/loyalty.pdf (non-paywalled archive version of WSJ piece from Dec)
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/may-tull-defend-diversity-contribution-statements/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/uc-davis-defends-its-diversity-statements-11577392382

Further comment has appeared

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/11/19/mathematician-comes-out-against-mandatory-diversity-statements-while-others-say-they
https://www.ams.org/journals/notices/202001/rnoti-o1.pdf (Letters to the editor)
https://theaggie.org/2020/01/23/abigail-thompson-diversity-statements-are-not-political-litmus-tests/ (UC Davis Student Union magazine)

AFAICS, other usual RSs about higher-ed stories such as the THES and CHE have not weighed in.

I think that the first four of the links above are clearly good sources to add to the article. I hesitate to ctually write the section for two reasons: I'm not sure to what extent the material in the other links supports high quality encyclopediac content, and the response from the chanceller and VC, while making some good points, calls Thompson's WSJ article "illogical" without actually refuting anything she says, so I am not sure how best to frame these posts. — Charles Stewart (talk) 11:01, 11 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I have been working on an addition to Thompson page regarding the diversity statement controversy. It's currently in User:AlwaysInRed/sandbox but I am about ready to add it to the page. -- AlwaysInRed (talk) 15:51, 22 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ops - forgot to ping Charles Stewart. -- AlwaysInRed (talk) 17:07, 22 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]