Report highlights how universities uphold DEI despite federal pressure
Hundreds of universities maintain Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) websites, a new report from an anti-indoctrination advocacy group has found.
The report, compiled by watchdog organization Defending Education on April 16, tracked 262 universities across 46 states.
Hundreds of universities maintain Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) websites, a new report from an anti-indoctrination advocacy group has found.
The report, compiled by watchdog organization Defending Education on April 16, tracked 262 universities across 46 states. Of those, 245 continue to operate some form of a DEI office, despite federal limitations.
In January, President Trump signed an executive order that said DEI “violate[s] the civil-rights laws of this Nation.” In February, his administration also issued a letter to schools receiving federal funding, which stated that DEI initiatives consist of “smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline.”
When broken down to include specific schools and colleges within each university, the report shows that the total number of DEI offices rises to 403.
“Despite an unequivocal directive from the White House to cease ‘DEI’ practices, too many institutions of higher education have sought to send their race essentialism underground by renaming or reorganizing race-based initiatives and DEI offices,” Defending Education Vice President and Legal Fellow Sarah Parshall Perry told Campus Reform.
“Our work in this space will not cease until American higher education is returned to the promise of color-blindness that the civil rights leaders of the 1960’s sought to secure,” she continued.
18 universities have moved to eliminate their DEI offices while 28 have attempted to rebrand or rename them. Kansas State University, for example, renamed its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to Access and Opportunity.
Some schools, such as the University of Michigan, have removed their central offices dedicated to DEI, while specific colleges within the university have kept DEI commitments in place. The university’s psychology department, engineering department, and law school all maintain DEI webpages.
The report maintains that its list is not comprehensive and will be continuously updated.
Defending Education describes itself as “a national grassroots organization working to restore schools at all levels from activists imposing harmful agendas.”
“Through network and coalition building, investigative reporting, litigation, and engagement, we fight indoctrination in classrooms and on campus to promote the reestablishment of a quality, non-political education for all students,” the organization’s mission statement continues.
[RELATED Trump admin pauses $2.2B in Harvard funding as school resists DEI changes]
Defending Education’s activities include pressuring colleges and universities to abandon practices it sees as harmful to students and society.
Earlier this month, the group filed a complaint against the University of Wisconsin at Madison with the Office for Civil Rights over an alleged discriminatory scholarship. The scholarship awards “statutorily designated minority Wisconsin undergraduate students.”
Defending Education also published a report last fall finding that the Department of Education has spent $1 billion on DEI initiatives in the last several years.
In addition to monitoring colleges and universities, the organization tracks the activities of K-12 schools as well. The organizations regularly updates web pages while tracking school district transgender policies and DEI as well.
Campus Reform contacted Defending Education for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
