The College Fix

List includes mix of scholars, staffers; large concentration found in med school

Stanford University now employs at least 177 people — a mix of scholars and staffers — dedicated to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, a tally that does not even include employees working in the elite institution’s Title IX office.

The latest tally represents an increase of nearly 100 employees in the span of three years, as research by the Heritage Foundation put the number of Stanford DEI staffers at 80 in 2021.

The list of 177 employees was compiled by an anonymous researcher and first reported on by conservative education activist Christopher Rufo, who provided the data to The College Fix upon request.

“Given Stanford’s current trajectory, DEI will likely keep growing. At each step, it will degrade the quality of scholarship and academic rigor,” Rufo wrote in City Journal in late April.

“The question is whether dissenters—professors, students, and alumni who reject the ideological capture of the university—will have enough power to dislodge more than 100 full-time bureaucrats,” Rufo wrote.

“Stanford’s new interim president, Richard Saller, was hired in part to moderate ideological influence on campus. But according to sources familiar with Saller in his previous role as dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, he probably lacks the strength to push back against DEI.”

Stanford’s media relations department did not respond to a request from The College Fix seeking comment. Stanford’s website states the university “is committed to providing a safe living and learning environment, in which every person is valued, and free speech and free expression and debate are encouraged within a culture of inclusion and mutual respect.”

The DEI research lists the name and title of each Stanford DEI employee, including 10 different university-level administrators, such as vice provosts, vice presidents, directors and managers, and another six DEI officials in the admissions office.

The law school, computer science department, neurosciences institute, Graduate School of Business, Haas Center for Public Service and Office of Postdoctoral Affairs all have either one or two employees dedicated to DEI.

The Stanford School of Medicine employs 16 different DEI staffers, including a chief DEI officer, senior executive director for DEI, special advisor to DEI programs, associate director of DEI community partnerships, diversity coordinator, and senior director of DEI pediatrics.

The list also includes 15 Stanford “IDEAL Initiative” scholars, which stands for “Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access in a Learning Environment.” IDEAL funds professorships and postdoctoral and graduate students, among other campus groups.

Launched in 2018, it aims to create a “transformative change in campus culture,” according to its website. In 2022, the university hosted the inaugural IDEAL scholars conference titled “Inequity by Design: The Structural Forces Making and Erasing Racism.”

The research also lists employees manning different campus identity centers for women, queer, Muslim, Asian, black, Latino and Native American students.

It’s unclear how all these efforts into DEI have paid off on campus.

The DEI research comes amid a recently published survey which found that more than one third of Stanford University students say using physical violence to stop a speech is acceptable in at least some circumstances.

Stanford was also given an “F” grade recently by the Anti-Defamation League for an alleged inability to deal with rampant antisemitism on campus.

Conservative candidates for a new law school dean were also reportedly blackballed.

Underscoring its high number of DEI employees, Stanford also employs nearly the same number of administrators as undergrads enrolled at the school — even as the number of educators per student has decreased over the last decade, an analysis conducted by The College Fix in 2023.

MORE: At Stanford, administrators nearly outnumber undergrads enrolled at the school

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