How to answer the diversity question during faculty interview On several occasions of my first-round faculty interview, I was asked about the diversity questions, such as:

&quot;How do you work with diverse students?&quot;
&quot;How do you contribute to the university's diversity mission?&quot;

I want to seek some insights into the questions. Which aspects I need to cover to deliver a winning answer?
It's not "delivering a winning answer", any more than "delivering a winning answer" would make sense when talking about teaching and/or research and/or mentoring.

That is, the question should be about what you have thought about, or acted upon, to move forward in social issues in the U.S.  Yes, in some regards, it is U.S.-centric, though I am sure analogous issues exist everywhere.

In the U.S., the bias against women and non-white ethnicities in STEM (Science, Tech, Engr, Math) fields has existed for decades, and continues to be a problem. Meanwhile, the undergrad student population, and, in happy circumstances, the grad student population, has shifted to be significantly more representative of the actual population of the U.S. This does matter at least for the state universities (even while, ok, the state funding is rapidly declining...)

So, apart from truly being willing to think about and deal with a more diverse student population, at least in math there is interest in knowing what you may have already done to work for this... and, as a milder condition, how open you are to spending some energy on this.

Yes, traditionally, in the U.S. as in many places, such stuff was irrelevant (supposedly). Now, belatedly, and, formally, rather abruptly, "we" are trying to catch up to decent behavior.