The Benefits of DEI? Not So Much

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | May 21, 2025 | Alexander Riley

[karpov]

The Trump administration is, for the first time since the emergence of the full-blown DEI regime in higher education, looking closely at what that movement has produced and where it runs counter to educational and political norms. The administration is using its authority to pressure colleges and universities to move away from practices that are not in conformity with those norms.

This has led to bitter complaint from the advocates of DEI ideology. In a recent Inside Higher Ed article, writer Sara Weissman ponders the “DEI Hills Higher Education Is Willing to Die On.” Naturally, DEI advocates want people to believe that they’re battling to save a noble cause.

There is much handwringing in Weissman’s article concerning what is being lost. The author quotes Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors, who strikes the stance of a protestor instead of a representative of a scholarly body. He says he is against any effort to curb the excesses of DEI “with every inch of my soul,” and he claims that AAUP’s membership is ready to “put our bodies on the line” to defend DEI.

When Wolfson says something a bit more substantive, he decries a purported imposition of “limits [on] research and curricula,” which could allegedly harm “the collective good.” It is telling, though, that he names no specific piece of objectively useful research that the demolition of DEI would prevent.

Another respondent in the article claims that all DEI does is “put the student first.” That is, it provides to those students recognized as members of underrepresented groups a set of reading materials written by members of their groups and otherwise creates “a learning environment for success” for such students. Still another interview subject alludes to “research” that “shows multicultural centers help students build ‘multicultural knowledge’.”

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TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: college; dei

[rktman]

D-elusional

E-litist

I-ntolerant.

[blackdog]

Money laundering thru social justice cause of the day, nothing more.

[PGalt]

YES, MIGA Make Individuals Great Again. Meritocracy-objective standards

[Jim W N]

Didn't Earn It.

DEI needs to DIE before more people DIE because of DEI!!!!!

[joshua c]

dei has been very effective at lowering standards

there is that

[bk1000]

“Another respondent in the article claims that all DEI does is “put the student first.”

“Another respondent in the article claims that all DEI does is “put the black student first.”

fixed it.

[antidemoncrat]

So are the people backing DEI the same ones that want to teach proper use of pronouns, advocating “Transgender and gay peoples’ rights” and allowing kids to change their genders without notifying parents? All this has done is to move kids farther down the list in world competition for top paying jobs.

[metmom]

None.

It ends up discriminating against a people group.

[Honorary Serb]

“Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” is discriminatory, and has no place in universities!

Universities must return to what they once were, when they built America’s education and research engine!