Students and taxpayers were left footing the bill last fall when many public universities went virtual but didn’t lower tuition. Apparently, some of that money went to diversity, equity, and inclusion departments, which schools continue to expand even though DEI efforts have nothing to do with education.
Colleges are supposed to be truth-seeking institutions, but many are working to create a safe space for the Left by shutting down attempts by students or faculty to speak against campus orthodoxies. Unsurprisingly, college campuses continue to grow more woke each year because of diversity programs that teach students not how to think but what to think.
A recent report released by the Heritage Foundation shows the growing prevalence of DEI personnel at major universities. The report analyzes 65 of the best-known colleges in the United States and found the average school employs 45 people who have “responsibility for promoting DEI goals.” Each school organizes things differently, but in general, these departments are responsible for creating programs and initiatives that foster diversity while catering to the needs of minority student groups.
The number of DEI jobs is shockingly out of proportion compared to how many staffers schools employ for other positions. According to the Heritage report, “Universities are required by law to provide reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other legislation, so the number of ADA compliance staff can be understood as universities fulfilling something they are required to do. The average university examined has 4.2 DEI personnel for every one ADA compliance person.” Similarly, schools have 1.4 times as many DEI staff members as they do tenure or tenure-tracked history professors.
If only the school administrators behind diversity efforts focused on creating a free environment where students and professors with different viewpoints could express themselves, but this isn’t the case. College campuses are some of the least ideologically diverse places in America. Often, students don’t think they can express their true beliefs for fear of being ostracized or seeing disciplinary actions. And according to a National Association of Scholars survey, schools have even gone as far as offering racially segregated dorms and graduation ceremonies.
DEI programs contribute to the rampant segregation on college campuses by promoting a particular ideology as the truth. The point of DEI efforts is not to foster thoughtful dialogue about thorny issues but to push a specific narrative — usually, one that relies on the pillars of critical race theory. When it comes to political ideology, the DEI administrators actually rebuff true diversity in favor of conformity with progressive talking points. Students and professors often feel like diversity efforts put an undeserved stamp of legitimacy on activities and viewpoints that no institution focused on academic freedom should promote.
Now that schools have invested in DEI departments, it is almost impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. DEI employees are motivated to argue departments need revamped curricula or students who ask too many questions are unruly. Staffers at schools where diversity has already increased are under pressure to justify their existence by other, inevitably controversial means. There will always be another issue or controversy that demands expanding diversity spending and hiring more staff. Students and faculty are caught in the middle because they have to censor everything they say or risk being reported. Too much will never be enough.
Students and taxpayers should be furious at universities for diverting vast sums of money to DEI initiatives, particularly during a time of a pandemic and hyper-inflated tuition. Seemingly harmless at first, these programs have quickly morphed into bloated witch hunts aimed at snuffing out free discourse on college campuses.
Cherise Trump is the executive director of Speech First.
