Back in mid-November, a frantic email from the chair of the faculty Senate described “impending threats” to DEI initiatives by the university’s Board of Regents, namely a plan to “defund or restructure” the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Investment.
That panicky email came after a blistering New York Times article, published Oct. 16. According to the story:
Most students must take at least one class addressing “racial and ethnic intolerance and resulting inequality.” Doctoral students in educational studies must take an “equity lab” and a racial-justice seminar. Computer-science students are quizzed on microaggressions.
The investigative story described a quarter-billion dollar DEI budget, spent over a decade, that created an atmosphere of anti-white hate, race-based hirings and promotions, and a campus where fewer black students are enrolled.
In one example from campus, the Times described how a white male professor was investigated for a Title IX discrimination complaint filed by a female student. The teacher, Eric Fretz, was subjected to the complaint because the student felt his written statement that renounced “sexism” and misogyny did not go far enough.
The number of U of M employees who work in a DEI-related job had increased to 241 last year, the Times said, but the percentage of black students was mostly stagnant at about 5%.
After the Times story dropped like a bomb, now two months ago, The College Fix reports some U of M regents have publicly denied there are plans to make major cuts to DEI programs.
At the same time, however, Provost Laurie McCauley announced Dec. 5 the University of Michigan is dropping the requirement for a signed “diversity statement” in order to be hired or promoted at the public university, which employs approximately 8,200 faculty members.
After a faculty working group sought feedback about requiring a “diversity statement,” nearly 2,000 faculty members participated in the survey. Most agreed a diversity statement puts pressure on them to “express specific positions on moral, political or social issues,” according to an article by The University Record.
Critics of diversity statements “perceive them as expressions of personal identity traits, support of specific ideology or opinions on socially-relevant issues, and serve as a ‘litmus test’ of whether a faculty member’s views are politically acceptable,” according to a report from the faculty working group.
Summarizing what group-think diversity had really created on campus, the working group logically concluded that diversity statements “have the potential to limit viewpoints and reduce diversity of thought among faculty members.”
That description of diversity statements is why they are often compared to Communist Party struggle sessions under Mao. In those public displays, a brainwashed mob forced confessions from teachers, family members and neighbors whose personal beliefs did not conform with acceptable beliefs.
Matt Lamb, associate editor of The College Fix, predicts dropping “diversity statements” is just “part one” of major changes that are coming at the University of Michigan.
“We’ll see if the university continues to make changes,” Lamb tells AFN. “I think they are waiting on a budget, and that affects some of the changes they'll make."
