DEI Is the Herald of Progress on College Campuses

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Casey Renée Lopez
March 24, 2025

The University of Michigan’s (UM) decision to preserve its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) program in December 2024, while concurrently removing the hiring requirement for faculty to provide diversity statements, emphasizes the complex and somewhat controversial nature of DEI initiatives unfolding across the various realms of higher education. The decision by the UM Board of Regents arrived during a backdrop of national debate concerning the usefulness and effectiveness of such institutional programming; some states, like Florida and Texas, have gone as far as banning them outright. Virginia’s Governor Youngkin has implemented policies prohibiting naming equity in higher education. Noting the nationwide opposition to DEI, Yasin Lowe, a UM student, told the board during their hearing that “DEI has been added to the long list of dog whistles and buzzwords that many bureaucrats are now too scared to touch.”

However, despite pressure from conservative interest groups and faculty, the university’s choice not to defund its DEI program is evidence of the rising acknowledgment of the significance of promoting a diverse and inclusive environment on college campuses. While there are opponents to such initiatives, NBC News staff writer Curtis Bunn noted how “more than 500 students and faculty and staff members rallied on [UM] campus, objecting to the potential disruption of the [DEI] program.” These programs are critical for constructing a sense of belonging for students from all backgrounds, promoting equity in access to educational opportunities and preparing students to thrive in an increasingly diverse world. Williams and Duckett have argued that university campuses, corporations and public institutions committed to “upholding civil rights and embedding and embracing social equity” maintain an ever-present goal toward progress. Still, while eliminating faculty diversity statements may seem to be a move towards accessibility in higher education, such action raises alarms about the university’s ongoing obligation for the continued development of meaningful DEI initiatives, especially in the face of an increasingly hostile political climate wrought by the Trump administration. Diversity statements are invaluable for evaluating a potential employee or faculty member’s understanding of and commitment to DEI values. By abolishing this requirement in the hiring and promoting process, the university jeopardizes its effort to build a sincerely diverse and inclusive faculty body that best represents the student body. However, Regents board member Michael Behm insisted there were no plans in place to cut programming, suggesting that the rumors were simply internet gossip.

The change in policy by UM further illustrates the exhaustive trials facing higher education as they collectively navigate the complexities of DEI, especially in the face of President Trump’s stream of executive orders, many of which are related to overturning progressive policies or programming concerning diversity and inclusion. While there is mounting recognition of the importance of DEI, there is also hostility from individuals and organizations who view such policies as superfluous or even damaging to the school’s reputation and place in higher education. Likewise, Keith Riles, a physics professor at the University of Michigan, said, “DEI [is] corrosive to this institution…DEI is the only systemic racism that has existed on this campus.” While Riles’s assertions are ignorant at best, he shares this rhetoric with countless others who are invested in demolishing educational programs that work to contextualize historical oppression for marginalized communities. Still, no matter what, social equity is a requirement in the twenty-first century. Though it is “a nervous area of government,” as Dr. Susan T. Gooden has argued, promoting programming that teaches historical accuracy, fairness and “actions to overcome the historic harms of oppressive policies and practices” is the only way to move beyond the shame of the past and into a future that is designed with everyone in mind. In the context of such divisive thinking surrounding equity and inclusion, universities nationwide must implement a nuanced approach to DEI that addresses what Williams and Duckett call “polarization, intergroup relations and the perceived threat of increasing diversity felt by some White Americans.”

Furthermore, universities must take action to ensure that the core ethics of each institution supports DEI initiatives and that they are executed in a way that is transparent and responsible for all members of the campus community. One potential avenue for improving the reception of such policies is to rebrand since the radical right has morphed the language of inclusion into partisan propaganda. Perhaps simply calling campus DEI initiatives “Fairness in Education” would be enough in the face of absurdly willful misunderstandings of words like diversity, equity and inclusion. The University of Michigan’s pronouncement is a reminder that the fight for DEI in higher education is far from over; indeed, it is likely only beginning as we move through the next four years under an arguably chaotic political atmosphere. Lastly, as the country continues to wrestle with diversity, equity and inclusion disputes, universities and other institutions with stakes in upholding justice must persist in their ongoing pledges to crafting environments where all students, faculty and staff feel comfortable, supported and respected as whole people.

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Author: Casey Renée Lopez is a Ph.D. student in Public Policy at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University. They hold two Master of Arts degrees in Interdisciplinary Studies and European History, respectively. They also teach in the English Department at Brightpoint Community College in Midlothian, Virginia. In the classroom, they love introducing their students to literary work that highlights social policy and environmental issues. As a student, they are primarily interested in violence intervention policy research related to transgender people and other marginalized groups. Through transdisciplinary work, they hope to contribute to developing more research on social equity as it applies to the transgender community in and around the Richmond, Virginia, metropolitan area. 

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