The ouster of Claudine Gay, who until recently served as Harvard University’s president, has sparked a national debate about diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in higher education.
Colleges and universities across the country are faced with different incentives for altering their approach to DEI, with some existing in states banning the racial promotion and hiring model and others encouraging its expansion.
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But while DEI programs on campus were under scrutiny before Gay’s resignation, the controversy at Harvard has sparked a national conversation about the value of such initiatives.
“These so-called places of ‘higher learning’ only bow to political pressure or a media firestorm. They won’t change their ways unless it becomes too detrimental to carry on, such as loss of credibility in the case of Claudine Gay,” Cherise Trump, executive director of Speech First, told the Washington Examiner. “Her resignation was a small win in the battle against DEI, but there are still many universities with policies in place that are just as bad as Harvard’s.”
Gay resigned amid numerous allegations of plagiarism and weeks of fallout from disastrous answers during a congressional hearing about antisemitism, but she was also seen by many as a symbol of DEI in action.
Gay had been promoted to senior positions at Harvard, including the presidency, despite a lackluster academic record. During more than 20 years as an academic, she had only written about half the number of journal articles a typical political science professor might in that same time frame, and she had authored zero books.
However, Gay was celebrated as a symbol of diversity for the school, being the first black woman to hold its top position.
In addition, Gay took office just two days after the Supreme Court ended race-based admissions practices for colleges in two separate rulings, one of which was against her school. In response, Gay and Harvard issued statements saying the school would find a way to continue their racial model while still technically being compliant with the ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
DEI ideology, which arose from academia and puts immutable characteristics such as race and gender over merit, has become entrenched in institutions of higher learning and has only recently faced ire from the public and politicians.
“DEI programs are racist by definition because the offices and their activities are designed to promote racial preferences in campus policies and activities,” Jonathan Butcher, a Heritage Foundation senior research fellow in education policy, told the Washington Examiner. “These offices also support so-called bias response teams that chill speech on campus and promote self-censorship, along with loyalty oaths for job applicants that require candidates to pledge allegiance to the new work orthodoxy.”
Universities public and private are ideologically driven by adherence to DEI but are also beholden to donors and their alumni networks, Trump explained, and some may soon be required to reassess how far they are willing to go to legitimize DEI.
“Continuous public and financial pressure are the only methods that work against the DEI industrial complex. Keep in mind, we have allowed these institutions to grow beyond the influence of a single ouster, media outlet, donor, or board member,” she said. “DEI is very dug-in and has become part of the university culture. Real change will take time and consistency over multiple generations with continuous legal challenges, more involvement by state lawmakers, and efforts by journalists to keep this issue on the public mind.”
The day after Gay’s resignation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth, another university president who has received heavy scrutiny in recent weeks, decided to double down on her school’s commitment to DEI, saying Wednesday that her office was making moves to use DEI programs to “effectively meet campus needs” and that she would name a new “Vice President for Equity and Inclusion.”
Kornbluth, along with Gay and Liz Magill, who resigned her position as president of the University of Pennsylvania in mid-December, faced accusations of antisemitism after their congressional testimony about dealing with pro-Hamas protests on their respective campuses.
But Harvard, MIT, and Penn are all private institutions that can maintain their DEI offices so long as they have the financial stability to do so, even if lawmakers in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were willing to pass laws banning the ideology on college campuses, which is unlikely.
Trump explained that “DEI is worse than ever before” and that DEI administrators are unlikely to see a lot of resistance from the current and future student bodies because they are largely “products of a K-12 education system that prioritized identitarian politics over academic rigor.”
“In some ways, they will double down publicly like the MIT president recently announced, but in other ways, they will become less transparent and use more insidious tactics to pursue their political goals in an attempt to avoid the level of public scrutiny they just witnessed with Claudine Gay,” she continued. “Many of these administrators got their start and benefited from DEI initiatives, so they are not going to change now if they can still benefit from them.”
Even in states such as Texas, which passed a law banning DEI offices at colleges and universities, the ideology can survive through various means.
Texas’s ban went into effect on Jan. 1, but schools affected by it wasted little time in simply rebranding their DEI programs, often to “belonging,” or moving the offices to different departments in order to be technically compliant but still functional.
University of Texas, San Antonio, President Taylor Eighmy announced last month his school would simply replace its DEI Office of Inclusive Excellence with the new Office of Campus and Community Belonging, which he said would maintain the staff of the old office and “take a proactive approach to maintaining a welcoming environment to enhance the student, staff and faculty experience.”
However, Eighmy reversed the plans to establish the new office on Tuesday, citing an “evolving understanding” of the DEI ban.
The University of North Texas dissolved its Division of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access but re-housed its responsibilities in various other departments. According to KERA, responsibility for Title IX, equal employment opportunity, and affirmative action all moved to the Division of Finance and Administration, while the Multicultural Center and Pride Alliance moved to Student Affairs.
“While we are changing the structure of some of our work, UNT’s commitment to helping all students succeed remains foundational to our mission,” UNT President Neal Smatresk said, announcing that the school would also be creating a Center for Belonging and Engagement.
The University of Texas, Dallas, is replacing its DEI office with an Office of Campus Resources and Support, which school President Richard Benson appears to have admitted is simply a name change with the same commitment to DEI.
“If you look past what maybe you call it, you know, diversity and inclusion, if it’s things like mentoring, recruiting and the like, support, we will continue to do those things,” he said. “And so it’ll go under a different name.”
The University of Texas, Arlington, did a similar name change.
“It’s important that states recognize when this is happening and find ways to close the loopholes that universities are taking advantage of,” Trump said. “Oftentimes, eliminating the department isn’t enough. The legislation needs to address the specific policies or practices on campus that are being used to censor and coerce students.”
Butcher said that one of the litmus tests for success in the next legislative session for states is how far lawmakers are willing to go in banning DEI.
“The wave of support in favor of merit and equality under the law — and opposing DEI’s racism — is already here,” he said, citing initiatives in Iowa, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Florida. “No taxpayer money should be used for DEI programs on college campuses or anywhere else.”
The Utah Board of Higher Education announced last week that Beehive State universities would begin to phase out the use of diversity statements in the hiring process.
“I think it’s bordering on evil that we’re forcing people into a political framework before they can even apply for a job in the state,” Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) said, saying the legislature plans to pass laws banning DEI.
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There are several strategies that can be used to rid colleges completely of DEI ideology in addition to legislation, Trump explained.
“We can hold the bad actors accountable in the court of law as well as in the court of public opinion,” she said. “At Speech First, we sue these institutions over their unconstitutional policies, and we’ve had quite a few wins. Our wins are going to be much more impactful if they are accompanied with strong legislation and a community of donors, board members, and media outlets that will hold them accountable.”
