Amory Manuel writes for the Martin Center about a questionable plan promoting diversity at the University of Michigan.
Just over a year ago, the University of Michigan launched a new, five-year-long initiative named the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) plan. In an official statement by President Mark Schlissel, the plan’s primary goal is stated to be the creation of a “vibrant climate of inclusiveness” on campus.
In order to heighten campus diversity, the plan pledged to increase enrollment of students from underrepresented backgrounds. These targeted demographics include the usual race and gender groups, but also, notably, students with underrepresented “political perspective[s].”
As for equity, the plan pledged to rid campus of discrimination based on the aforementioned identities—although without mentioning “political perspective”—and for inclusion, the plan promised to foster a campus culture that welcomes different perspectives by “support[ing] innovative and inclusive scholarship and teaching.” DEI is designed to achieve “progress” through tangible actions, its administrators held accountable by measurable results.
Despite this no-nonsense branding, the plan contains an enormous amount of inanity.
Read through the official DEI materials and you soon feel overwhelmed by inspiring platitudes and glossy pictures of smiling minorities. As I noted in an earlier Michigan Review article, the administration has a nasty habit of hiding potentially controversial policy decisions deep in a matrix of feel-good fluff and pages of meaningless drivel.
