If you’re looking for a university that is recognized as being committed to woke ideology, there are quite a few to choose from. But there’s no question that the University of Michigan has made a real effort to be at the forefront of this change. The school spends more on DEI administrators and programs than any other school (at least $250 million) and has more than 500 staff dedicated to DEI.
UM has also been at the forefront of requiring diversity statements, a way for schools to ensure that only the most left-wing candidates are considered for jobs. UM has used the following statement to single out appropriate IDs since at least 2016.
Launched in 2016, the University Fellows Program employs clever administrative operations to pack faculty. Rather than hiring professors through the normal competitive search process, the program hires postdoctoral researchers whose applications are submitted at the institution formerly run by (UM’s current DEI Director Tubby) Chaves. Reviewed by a national institutional diversity center. Fellows are guaranteed a tenure-track position after participating in the program for up to two years, providing a pathway to a professorship.
“Our experience with the University Fellows Program shows us that a high proportion (93%) of fellows who demonstrate a positive commitment to DEI are from traditionally underrepresented groups,” he states candidly. ..
“Of the 45 University Fellows recruited to UM, 90% identify as people of color and 65% are from URM’s traditionally racial/ethnic groups (Black, Latino, Native American). ) and 70% are women.
Although it is illegal to include a disclaimer on UM faculty job postings that says “white men need not apply,” the DEI Mandatory Statement allows DEI administrators to do the same.
In the wake of a New York Times report revealing that all of the DEI spending is doing nothing to improve the environment on campus, there are rumors that school executives have had enough. This leaves UM’s DEI staff worried about their jobs and vowing to fight back.
On Thursday, the school’s principal announced that the required DEI statement will no longer be used in hiring.
The University of Michigan will no longer require diversity statements as part of faculty hiring, promotion and tenure decisions, the school announced Thursday, marking a major change at one of the nation’s premier public research institutions. Ta.
The new policy, announced by the University of Michigan’s president, comes as the university’s trustees consider an extensive overhaul of its vast diversity, equity and inclusion programs among the nation’s most ambitious and well-funded universities. It was announced during the At a public meeting Thursday afternoon, Michigan State Regents and President Santa J. Ono also announced a significant expansion of the school’s signature scholarship program, Go Blue Guarantee, for low-income students.
Some regents have suggested they are likely to seek cuts to the school’s massive DEI bureaucracy to compensate for the expansion, but those decisions will come as Michigan State develops its next annual budget. A final decision will not be made until then.
This announcement was clearly orchestrated and appears to be an attempt to advance some of the changes the regents were trying to make. But its importance goes far beyond UM. After all, this is a school that has been pressuring other universities to follow its lead by requiring diversity statements.
The University of Michigan has promoted this statement far beyond its own campus. Universities across the country use versions of the Diversity Statement scoring rubric devised by the National Center for Institutional Diversity, part of Michigan’s Central DEI Office, or other hiring practices developed by universities.
John D. Saylor, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute who has written extensively on diversity statements, called Michigan’s decision a “watershed moment” in higher education.
Some faculty specifically didn’t want this to happen because it would send a message about DEI in general, but after a survey of faculty, the changes were made anyway. .
…According to a survey conducted for the commission, more than half of Michigan’s faculty believe that diversity statements pressure professors to express particular moral, political, or social views. It turns out that I believe that.
It should be clear to everyone that mandatory DEI statements are a racial and political litmus test. This should never have been allowed to begin with, but of course this is what makes the university as a whole (UM in particular) a place focused on leftist political identity and indoctrination.
It would be of great significance for a school that is at the forefront to put an end to this one practice. I hope other universities take a cue and eradicate this practice.
