The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor will no longer solicit diversity statements in faculty hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions, the provost, Laurie K. McCauley, announced on Thursday.
The announcement, in an internal publication for faculty and staff, drew heated responses on a frigid day when protesters were preparing to assemble outside President Santa J. Ono’s house to demand that the university uphold its diversity commitments. Reports had been circulating that the Board of Regents was likely to announce cuts in Michigan’s expansive diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. During a board meeting Thursday, the regents sought to reassure the university community that no such cuts were in the works.
“There’s not a person at the table who plans on making cuts” to any of the programs a speaker cited as important, one regent, Michael J. Behm, said.
Still, the elimination of diversity statements was a significant change for a university that has been one of the nation’s leading proponents of a strategy aimed at attracting more faculty members of color. It’s also significant because the university is located in a state where there have been no recent significant legislative efforts to ban racial- and gender-based initiatives to fight discrimination and recruit and retain students and faculty of color.
Given the priorities of the incoming administration in Washington, the university will have “hard decisions” to make, Chris Kolb, vice president for government relations, told the regents.
“I have been told pretty bluntly that Congress — this administration — will use whatever tools they have to have us yield to what they want us to do,” he said. “DEI is one of those things they believe should be eliminated from higher education. They will use whatever tools they have, including cutting off finances, to make that happen.” Without taking anyone’s eyes off the university’s mission, Kolb said, “We may have to trim sails. We may have to tack left. We may have to tack right.”
The Chronicle has tracked more than 200 campuses that have made changes to DEI programming since January 2023, when political attacks ramped up.
The lack of diversity among faculty members nationally has exacerbated challenges attracting more students of color. Diversity statements are one way universities like Michigan have sought to remedy that. These statements typically ask faculty job candidates or those seeking promotion or tenure to describe how they would contribute to a college’s diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.
Lawmakers in at least nine states have banned their use in the past two years. Other institutions that have halted them include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
Sarah Hubbard, one of two Republicans on Michigan’s eight-member elected Board of Regents, praised the decision to end diversity statements. In a post on X, she wrote that “We’re taking steps in the right direction to restore diversity of thought and freedom of speech for everyone on campus.” She has said publicly that the board is taking “a criticial look” at the spending and priorities of the university’s DEI efforts and that she’d like to see changes in how the money is spent. Budget decisions wouldn’t be made until next year.
Diversity Programs
The University of Michigan has one of the largest DEI operations in the country. Yet Black enrollment has barely budged, and students still feel isolated.
The provost said in her announcement that the administration was following an October 31 recommendation by an eight-member faculty working group “to end the use of the statements,” which she said “have been criticized for their potential to limit freedom of expression and diversity of thought on campus.”
She didn’t mention that the faculty committee had earlier recommended allowing individual units to decide for themselves whether to use diversity statements. The regents didn’t accept that recommendation and sent it back to the committee for further research, according to Rebekah Modrak, the Faculty Senate chair and a professor in the School of Art and Design.
“Sending a committee back to work to give a second report with preordained results is neither honest nor respectful of faculty expertise,” Modrak wrote in the comments section of the university’s announcement of the policy change.
The university also failed to adopt another part of the faculty committee’s recommendation; that, instead of stand-alone diversity statements, individual units incorporate content about DEI into teaching, research, and service statements.
Chandra Sripada, a professor of philosophy and psychiatry, said he was the lone dissenting voice on the faculty committee that initially recommended allowing diversity statements. He believes such statements pressure faculty members to adopt certain progressive orthodoxies.
“People are afraid to speak out about these matters,” he said in an interview. “Part of the reason is that diversity statements are required at the point of hiring, promotion, and annual review. You don’t want to say things against DEI policies or programs when there are regular evaluations that are based on your demonstrating your commitment to DEI.”
The university also announced Thursday that it’s expanding eligibility for its Go Blue Guarantee, which covers full tuition for students whose families earn below a certain income threshold. Eligible incoming and returning full-time, in-state students whose families have annual incomes up to $125,0000 and assets up to $125,000 will qualify for free tuition to the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses. (The previous income threshold was $75,000.) The changes will allow almost 2,200 more students to qualify for free tuition starting in the fall of 2025.
“The Go Blue Guarantee breaks down economic barriers and ensures that a world-class education is available to Michigan students from all backgrounds, no matter their family’s economic means,” Ono said at the regents meeting.
Financial aid, while important, isn’t enough to ensure that students from marginalized backgrounds feel supported and are able to succeed at Michigan, a few speakers noted. Nicholas Love, a Michigan senior and leader in the Black Student Union, told the regents that DEI isn’t perfect and has never claimed to be. But at a time when Black students are being subjected to racial epithets and the words of its leaders weaponized to justify cutting DEI, he said, the people critics call the “bloated DEI bureaucracy” are “the ones who have heard and responded to our concerns and made sure that we felt seen.”
