The University of Michigan has spent about a quarter of a billion dollars on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts since 2016, but that has done nothing to unite or improve the campus community, and in fact in many ways DEI dogma produced more strife and division.
That sums up a lengthy article published recently in the New York Times Magazine headlined “The University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong?”
It included interviews by more than 60 students, faculty, alumni and administrators, a stack of internal documents, and several outside research projects on the subject of UMich’s DEI efforts.
For example, the article cited research published exclusively by The College Fix at the beginning of this year conducted by economist Mark Perry, who tallied the number of paid University of Michigan employees focused on DEI at 241, with payroll costs exceeding $30 million annually.
It also cited a 2021 report from the Heritage Foundation, which found Michigan has the largest DEI bureaucracy of any large public university.
What reporter Nicholas Confessore discovered was for all that effort, stakeholders — students and scholars alike — mock, bemoan and dismiss it as all for naught.
“Where some found it shallow, others found it stifling. They rolled their eyes at the profusion of course offerings that revolve around identity and oppression, the D.E.I.-themed emails they frequently received but rarely read,” Confessore reported. “Michigan’s own data suggests that in striving to become more diverse and equitable, the school has also become less inclusive.”
UMich Regent Mark Bernstein told the Times: “The cocktail chatter is: ‘I can’t say anything in class anymore. I’m going to get run out of class.’ There’s an enormous amount of fear.”
Bernstein isn’t the only regent who’s concerned. A Nov. 21 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education headlined “Is DEI in the Crosshairs at the U. of Michigan” portends more writing on the wall.
To wit, the behemoth DEI bureaucracy at the University of Michigan may finally be on the verge of a scale back as regents reel from the “scathing almost 10,000-word magazine article published in The New York Times in October scrutinizing the price and effectiveness of the university’s efforts,” the Chronicle reported.
Perry, who compiled UMich’s 2023-24 DEI spending stats as a paid consultant for The College Fix, continues to sound the alarm, most recently reminding UMich regents of how ridiculous and over-the-top the public university’s DEI spending is.
Below is a letter Perry sent to the regents Saturday, published in full with permission:
Dear UM Regents:
As you continue to discuss and consider dismantling, defunding or significantly reducing UM’s “DEI Ideological Complex” (“Is DEI in the Crosshairs at the U. of Michigan?”) I would ask you to consider the following data summarized in the attached document “University of Michigan 2023-2024 Diversity Report Summary” and reported by The College Fix “UMich now has more than 500 jobs dedicated to DEI, payroll costs exceed $30 million.”
1. UM employs at least 241 paid staff members whose main duties are to provide DEI programming and services as either their exclusive or primary job responsibility. In addition, 76 faculty or staff members work part-time as “DEI Unit Leads” advancing diversity efforts in one of UM’s 51 schools, colleges, and units that are a key part of UM’s new 5-year Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) 2.0 Plan. I did not include the salaries of the 76 part-time “DEI Unit Leads” to calculate the annual cost of DEI at UM, but did include them in the list of DEI-related staff members at UM, bringing the total DEI headcount at UM to 317 employees. For reasons discussed in the attached document, I believe that the number of DEI staff members at UM is significantly higher than 317, likely exceeds 500 employees, and is possibly as high as 600.
2. The total annual payroll cost of UM’s full-time DEI staff is estimated to be $30.68 million — $23.24 million for staff salaries and $7.44 million for employee fringe benefits. To put that in perspective, $30.68 million would pay in-state tuition and fees ($17,228) for 1,781 undergraduate students. UM’s DEI staff is well compensated with salaries as high as $402,800 for UM’s head diversity administrator Tabbye Chavous Sellers, UM’s Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion & Chief Diversity Officer. In contrast, Michigan’s governor Gretchen Whitmer’s salary is $159,300, and the average salaries for assistant, associate, and full professors at UM are $129,500, $148,300, and $206,500 respectively. Therefore, UM’s chief diversity officer is paid almost 2X more than the average full professor at UM, 2.5X more than Michigan’s governor, and about 3X more than the average UM assistant or associate professor.
Thirteen DEI staff members earn more than $200,000 and 66 earn more than $100,000. The average DEI salary at UM is $96,400, which brings total average compensation to more than $127,000 with fringe benefits added at a rate of 32%. With fringe benefits, 144 DEI employees at UM receive a total compensation of more than $100,000.
3. UM’s diversity staff has increased significantly over the last 20 years from 0 “diversicrats” in 2003 to 241 last year, see chart below. When UM releases 2024-2025 salaries in December, I will update my annual analysis of UM’s diversity headcount and compensation.
Thank you for considering these data as you continue to discuss dismantling and defunding DEI at UM,
Professor Emeritus Mark J. Perry, UM-Flint
Scholar Emeritus American Enterprise Institute
Senior Fellow, Do No Harm
Senior Research Fellow, Equal Protection Project
University of Michigan regents are keenly aware that more than two-dozen red state legislatures have rolled back DEI in some measure in recent years — and Donald Trump won Michigan’s electoral votes this month after promises to abolish the Department of Education.
Leaders of Michigan’s flagship institution may very well be willing and ready to finally say enough is enough.
MORE: UMich now has more than 500 jobs dedicated to DEI, payroll costs exceed $30 million
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