Mandatory "diversity statements" for would-be professors are out at the University of Michigan, reports the New York Times, and regents are considering shrinking costly and unpopular diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The savings could pay for expanding scholarships for low-income students.
Michigan could be the first selective public universities to rethink DEI without legislative pressure, notes the Times. DEI administrators are trying to "rebut criticism of their work and preserve their funding."
DEI is in trouble, writes Patrick J. Casey, a philosophy professor who serves on a DEI committee at Holy Names University. "A second Trump administration is likely to be more motivated, better equipped and more focused on dismantling DEI initiatives on college campuses."
DEI staffers need to understand why they're held in "contempt" by Trump voters, he writes on Inside Higher Ed.
To start with, DEI staffers are seen as "incurious" people who think they have all the answers, and are quick to dismiss dissenters as sexists and racists, Casey writes. Issues such as the wisdom of identity politics should be open for discussion.
DEI-infused education "is often interpreted as progressive identity politics by another name," writes Casey. Speakers are invited to center their "lived experience" are invariably minorities with progressive views. "In Tyler Austin Harper’s piercing words, we are engaging in an 'elaborate act of ventriloquy'.”
DEI should include ideological diversity, he writes.
Students often feel pressured to take stands on issues they don't really understand, writes Casey. They're turned off by "patronizing" DEI programs.
DEI staffers have become the "language police" on campus, he writes. "This semester, I have had several students — including students of color — express that they feel in the policing of language a contempt from those who purport to be their moral or ethical superiors. Obviously, this is the opposite of the inclusion and belonging that we seek to foster."
If DEI is to survive, Casey concludes, it must become "conspicuous in including multiple viewpoints, emphasizing open inquiry and curiosity and modeling genuine conversations about important issues relating to identity."
I think DEI has hit its emperor's-new-clothes moment. Most people don't like it, and they now feel empowered to say so.