The move comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting DEI programs.
‘People will fight back’: Advocates react to Trump’s ‘war on DEI’
Advocates of diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, are criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump for shutting down government diversity programs by executive order.
- U-M has spent about $250 million in recent years on DEI efforts.
- Michigan has a long history of promoting diversity on its campus including legal fights at the U.S. Supreme Court.
The University of Michigan is closing its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, a major retreat for a school that has long championed its progressive values in the wake of executive orders from President Donald Trump that have targeted DEI efforts nationwide.
University President Santa Ono informed staffers in a statement posted to the university’s website.
“The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI) and the Office for Health Equity and Inclusion (OHEI) will close,” the school said in the statement signed by Ono, Provost Laurie McCauley, Marschall Runge, the executive vice president of medical affairs, and Executive Vice President Geoffrey Chatas. “Student-facing services in ODEI will shift to other offices focused on student access and opportunity.”
The statement went on to say: “The DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan, the umbrella strategy for schools, colleges and units, will be discontinued, along with DEI 2.0 unit plans, related programming, progress reporting, training and funding. Individual leads, who have supported DEI efforts in schools, colleges and units, will refocus their full effort on their core responsibilities.”
The decision drew immediate blowback from a faculty leader on campus.
“The federal government is determined to dismantle and control higher education and to make our institutions more uniform, more inequitable, and more exclusive,” Rebekah Modrak, chair of the Faculty Senate, wrote to colleagues in an email about the decision. “They are using the power of the government to engineer a sweeping culture change towards white supremacy. Unfortunately, University of Michigan leaders seem determined to comply and to collaborate in our own destruction.”
Modrak, a professor of art and design, invited colleagues to attend an emergency Zoom meeting at noon Friday to discuss it. She said the decision threatens academic freedom.
“These missteps by our university will not end here; they will lead, as they have done in Texas and Ohio, to the censorship of course and program content,” she said.
It’s unclear how many layoffs might result from the university’s decision, but McCauley, the provost, told staffers in an email that it “comes in a climate shaped by recent federal executive orders, legal decisions, and guidance that have intensified scrutiny of DEI programming across higher education.”
“These changes will affect several of our valued colleagues, who have already been notified,” she wrote. “While I cannot share specifics out of respect for our affected colleagues’ privacy, please know we are committed to providing resources and assistance to these team members during this time of difficult transition.”
She said some efforts to create a diverse campus will remain unchanged.
“But you must know that all of our ODEI staff’s efforts will have a legacy, because they have helped change our culture and the way in which we see our fellow human beings,” she said. “These colleagues have kindled the fires that our communities will keep tending for as long as there is inequality and injustice, no matter how the landscape changes.”
History of investment in diversity, equity, inclusion
Michigan has invested heavily in DEI in recent years.
In 2016, the school announced an $85 million strategic plan aimed at boosting diversity. By last year, the school had spent more than $250 million on such efforts, according to an investigation by The New York Times.
The DEI office says on its webpage that it “leads and supports a variety of university-wide initiatives and guides policy at the enterprise level focused on recruitment and retention of a broadly diverse student body, faculty, and staff.”
It currently includes a Center for Educational Outreach, the National Center for Institutional Diversity, the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives and Wolverine Pathways, a system that supports students in grades 7 to 12 from historically underrepresented schools.
Despite those efforts, the school has struggled to boost the number of college students from underrepresented minority backgrounds, especially Black students.
In 2022, just 4.5% of its undergraduate students identified as Black in a state where about 14% of the population is Black.
The school has attempted to boost enrollment among underrepresented groups in ways that don’t directly involve race, including expanding the “Go Blue Guarantee,” which provides free tuition to in-state students with household incomes of up to $125,000 per year and assets of up to $125,000.
The previous income threshold was $75,000.
As part of Thursday’s announcement, the school reiterated its commitment to “foster an environment that values and supports every member of our community and honors diverse backgrounds, perspectives and experiences.”
In addition to the Go Blue Guarantee, it noted that it would enhance mental health support for students and expand the Blavins Scholars program, which mentors students without parents and those raised in foster care or kinship care.
The school said it also plans to beef up counseling, tutoring and efforts to make students feel a sense of belonging.
“We remain committed to maintaining vital student spaces, including the Trotter Multicultural Center, the Spectrum Center, and various multicultural spaces in residence halls, all of which are open to all students,” the school said.
Regent Jordan Acker said the school remains committed to having a diverse campus and the move will make the school’s diversity efforts work better.
“Over the past several years, the university has spent $250 million on diversity efforts, but yet the population of minority students at U-M has grown little — and a disproportionate amount we’ve devoted to these efforts have gone into administrative overhead, not outreach to students,” Acker said in a statement. “At Michigan, the focus of our diversity efforts needs to be meaningful change, not bureaucracy.”
Applause and reproach
In a statement posted on X, Regent Sarah Hubbard applauded the decision.
“We are eliminating bureaucratic overspending and making Michigan more accessible,” she said. “Ending DEI programs will also allow us to better expand diversity of thought and free speech on our campus.”
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, blasted the decision.
“University of Michigan students deserve an administration that will fight for their rights and work to ensure everyone has the opportunity to thrive, not roll over and capitulate to Trump’s attacks on academic freedom and students’ constitutional protections,” she said in a statement.
The move to close the DEI office is the latest in a series of changes to the school’s DEI efforts.
In December, the university announced it would no longer solicit diversity statements from prospective faculty members.
Also in December, the school prompted a backlash from faculty when it fired Rachel Dawson, the head of the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, who was accused of making antisemitic remarks.
Last week, the U-M Alumni Association ended its LEAD Scholarship program, which aimed at boosting minority enrollment on campus. Visit our website at 8dayk.com to learn more about our products and services
Contact John Wisely: [email protected]. On X: @jwisely.