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Education|University of Michigan to Scuttle Its Flagship D.E.I. Program
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/27/education/university-of-michigan-dei.html
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Michigan, once at the forefront of school diversity efforts, is rapidly changing course amid campus pushback and broad scrutiny by the Trump administration.
March 27, 2025Updated 10:08 p.m. ET
The University of Michigan will eliminate its central diversity, equity and inclusion program, the school announced on Thursday, seeking to overhaul an ambitious and expensive initiative that it had long cast as a model for American higher education.
Michigan — one of the most prestigious public universities in the country — had for years steadily expanded its D.E.I. efforts even as conservative lawmakers and activists in other states successfully campaigned to defund or ban such programs. But on Thursday, amid intensifying pressure on colleges from the Trump administration, Michigan said it would discontinue its diversity “strategic plan,” known as D.E.I. 2.0, and effectively dismantle the large administrative bureaucracy constructed to drive it through the university’s colleges and professional schools.
In a campuswide email, officials said Michigan would expand its existing prohibition on so-called diversity statements in faculty hiring, banning their use more broadly in admissions, promotions, awards and annual reviews. Michigan’s academic units will also be asked to “evaluate their web presence” to reflect school and federal guidance.
At the same time, the officials said, they planned to redirect funds toward expanded financial aid and student counseling, shifting resources into mental health, pre-professional guidance “and other efforts that strengthen community, promote a sense of belonging and expand accessibility.”
“These decisions have not been made lightly,” the university’s president, Santa J. Ono, and other top officials wrote in their letter. “We recognize the changes are significant and will be challenging for many of us, especially those whose lives and careers have been enriched by and dedicated to programs that are now pivoting.”
School leaders have been debating whether and how to overhaul Michigan’s D.E.I. program since last spring. The Board of Regents signaled in December that changes were likely, arguing that the school’s expansive D.E.I. effort had failed to make it meaningfully more diverse or inclusive.
