The College Fix

New research has found the number of University of Michigan employees who work either full-time or part-time on diversity, equity, and inclusion-related efforts now tops 1,100.

The findings come as the U.S. Department of Education under President Donald Trump has eliminated all its DEI initiatives, including placing DEI staff on paid administrative leave and removing DEI language, trainings, directives, and advisory boards throughout the agency.

The University of Michigan in December announced it will no longer require diversity statements in faculty hiring and tenure decisions — but its Board of Regents stopped short of cutting any DEI spending despite at least one regent voicing concerns about the millions of dollars the public institution is spending to embed DEI into every corner of campus under its DEI 2.0 plan.

One reported internal estimate placed the cost of DEI spending at UMich at $250 million over the last eight or so years, yet annual student surveys show many of the institution’s students report feeling like they do not belong on campus.

Economist Mark Perry, a University of Michigan-Flint emeritus professor who tallied up the latest number of DEI jobs at UMich, told The College Fix its DEI bureaucracy is extraordinary in its size and scope.

The report identifies 249 full-time UM staff members whose main duties are to provide DEI programming services and advance DEI 2.0 at an annual payroll cost of $24.2 million.

When fringe benefits are added at a rate of 32 percent of base salaries it brings the total annual compensation of UM’s DEI staff to nearly $32 million — or enough to pay in-state tuition and fees for approximately 1,800 students.

(Pictured, the top 30 paid DEI employees; for entire list, click here)

“The rest of the country in higher education, government, and the corporate world are really turning back on DEI, but the University of Michigan is doubling down on DEI,” Perry said. “It shows an obsessive commitment to efforts that have questionable outcomes and are extremely expensive.”

Every year Perry tallies the amount of money and resources UMich devotes to DEI, but this year he took it a step further, delving into the bowels of all the DEI 2.0 Unit Strategic Plans posted online across the institution’s 51 units to determine the scope of the efforts.

“Every year they [UMich administrators] criticize the DEI headcount I come up with, but they never come up with a number of their own — maybe this is the year they will,” he said, adding it remains to be seen whether regents will address the topic at their February meeting, but he believes they should.

The College Fix provided on Monday a copy of Perry’s report and spreadsheet to the University of Michigan’s media affairs division and the office of Tabbye Chavous, chief diversity officer. Chavous did not respond. Colleen Mastony, assistant vice president for public affairs, told The Fix in response: “We don’t have anything more to share. The agenda for the regents meeting will be posted here on Feb. 17.”

Bean counting
Michigan maintains an Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, or ODEI, that includes a chief diversity officer, Chavous, who earns $417,000 annually plus benefits.

“In contrast, Michigan’s governor Gretchen Whitmer’s salary is $159,300, and the average salaries for assistant, associate, and full professors at UM (all campuses) are $130,037, $145,360, and $207,827 respectively,” according to the research study compiled by Perry and provided exclusively to The College Fix.

The University of Michigan’s central ODEI office oversees the National Center for Institutional Diversity, Center for Educational Outreach, Wolverine Pathways, and Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives — all told requiring 90 full-time staffers, including eight open positions, the report states.

ODEI also oversees an additional 123 diversity-related positions that do not currently have names assigned such as interns, ambassadors, and coordinators filled by a variety of students and staff, according to Perry’s report, compiled in January using public data on ODEI’s Leadership & Staff website.

On top of those efforts, the university employs 167 staffers across UM’s schools, colleges, centers, programs, offices, and libraries to advance DEI, such as the College of Engineering’s Office of Culture Community and Equity (21 staffers) and Michigan Medicine’s Office for Health, Equity, and Inclusion (20 staffers).

But wait — there’s more. To enact its massive “DEI 2.0 Plan,” the university has tapped 118 “Unit Leads” — a mix of deans, scholars and staffers — 46 who are full-time diversity employees and 72 who work part-time alongside their normal jobs to oversee the implementation of the various DEI goals within each of the university’s 51 units, from 17 academic schools and colleges to the IT division to Athletics to the Department of Public Safety to three libraries to the Museum of Art and even the Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum.

To support those “Unit Leads,” a total of 679 additional staffers across the 51 units have been tasked with helping roll out the DEI 2.0 plan, according to Perry, who reviewed each of the 51 Unit Strategic Plans to count the number of employees tasked with DEI advancement.

All told, that’s roughly 1,123 jobs dedicated to advancing DEI at the University of Michigan, according to Perry’s findings. The University of Michigan-Flint emeritus professor also notes in his report he didn’t even include 51 jobs in the Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX Office in his round-up.

“Ten DEI staff members earn more than $200,000 and 79 earn $100,000 or more. The average DEI salary at UM is $97,843 which brings total average annual compensation per DEI employee to more than $129,000 with fringe benefits added at a rate of 32%. Including fringe benefits, 155 DEI employees at UM receive total annual compensation of more than $100,000,” the report states.

A demographic analysis of the 249 DEI employees, who Perry dubs “diversicrats,” also reveals that women are significantly overrepresented by a factor of more than 3-to-1 at 76.4 percent female compared to 23.6 percent male, respectively; employees of color are also significantly overrepresented among DEI staff compared to whites, 57 percent to 43 percent, respectively.

Perry told The College Fix the data raises the possibility of systemic gender and racial biases for hiring diversity staff at UM.

Asked to weigh in on the research, longtime University of Michigan physics Professor Keith Riles said he is shocked by them.

“These numbers are jaw-dropping, even worse than I had realized,” Riles told The College Fix via email Monday. Riles made headlines in December when he appeared before the regents and urged them to cut DEI spending, arguing some of their apparent preferential minority hiring practices appear to be illegal

“The money wasted on DEI salaries should go into scholarships for talented Michigan students from low-income families, regardless of race or gender,” Riles told The Fix.

MORE: UMich botanical garden employs DEI manager, hosts ‘confronting racism’ training

IMAGE: YouTube screenshot

Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter