The University of Michigan DEI Walkback Is Worth Celebrating

National Review Online

Wednesday, April 02, 2025

 

‘Those are my principles,” Groucho Marx once said, “and if you don’t like them . . . well, I have others.”

 

The University of Michigan announced last year — presumably in anticipation of an antagonistic Trump administration — that it would “no longer solicit diversity statements as part of faculty hiring, promotion and tenure.” But even when removing that policy, the university firmly reiterated the value and necessity of DEI: “Diversity, equity and inclusion are three of our core values at the university,” the provost said, adding that “our collective efforts in this area have produced important strides in opening opportunities for all people.”

 

Well, it now apparently has other “core values.”

 

Last week, the University of Michigan announced that it will abandon a wide range of its DEI units and programs. Two offices dedicated to DEI will close, the current DEI strategic plan will be discontinued, and diversity statements will not be considered in any arm of the institution. Additionally, the university’s legal team will conduct a review to ensure that policies, programs, and practices comply with the law. The university, these days singing a very different tune, concludes the statement on an optimistic note: “We stand steadfast in our dedication to academic freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and to lifting the distinct, ineffable potential of every individual in our community.”

 

This is cause for celebration. While many higher education institutions had DEI bureaucracies, the University of Michigan had a totalizing DEI regime that sought to “enact far-reaching foundational change at every level, in every unit.” As the New York Times previously reported, professors were trained in “antiracist pedagogy” and given handouts on “Identifying and Addressing Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture,” while most students were required to take a class addressing “racial and ethnic intolerance and resulting inequality.” The university spent $250 million on DEI since 2016 but got the opposite of its desired results: a 2022 survey showed that students and faculty largely reported a less positive campus climate and less of a sense of belonging than before.

 

The recent statement is promising, but we’ll take the university more seriously when we see the results. The student newspaper recently reported that 20 staff members are likely to be laid off — but that seems suspiciously low, since it was previously reported that there were upwards of 200 employees whose job titles included the words “diversity,” “equity,” or “inclusion.” In its statement, the University of Michigan said it is “committed to maintaining vital student spaces,” such as the Trotter Multicultural Center and the Spectrum Center — both of which advance DEI.

 

The most recent annual report released by the Trotter Multicultural Center states that its “core work” includes “racial healing and well-being,” and it “hosted” an academic class titled “#BlackLivesMatter: A Qualitative Social Media Analysis of Online Activism.” Likewise, the Spectrum Center’s most recent annual report states that its “vision” is a “campus community” where “social justice inspires community engagement and equity,” and it would “begin implementing specific principles and action items to strive to be an anti-racist space, centering the most marginalized voices within our communities.”

 

Thanks in large part to the Trump administration, the University of Michigan — along with other institutions that abandoned their educational missions to instead promote progressivism — has taken a big step in the right direction. But the DEI rot goes deep, and we should all be keeping a close watch as the university talks of pursuing a path guided by other, more benign core values.