An analysis by The College Fix found that Columbia University has more full-time employees than undergrad students.
There are almost 10,000 full-time employees at the university and 8,262 undergrad students.
Many of the employees are involved in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) positions, however.
For example, the university’s Earth Observatory employs more than 6,700 people, the analysis found, and prides itself on its diverse environment.
The Earth Observatory is committed to fostering a “diverse, nurturing, and vibrant community founded upon the fundamental understanding that all of its members deserve dignity and have value,” its website reads. “We have failed science and ourselves over the last half century by unintentionally and/or intentionally excluding representative numbers of Black people, and other people of color, from our ranks. A renewed and effective dedication to anti-racist practices is imperative to the operation of a just institution and our ability to undertake the most creative, innovative, salient, and beneficial research.”
“Our goal is to create a progressive, anti-racist, inclusive community,” the statement adds. “We must each uphold the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our daily practices. We must make meaningful anti-discriminatory changes to our existing academic and research infrastructures.”
As of 2013, the university employed 8,370 people. Almost 2,700 were instructional positions. At the time, the undergrad population was 7,374.
During the 2013-2014 academic year, there were 774 employees per 1,000 students.
As of the 2022-2023 academic year, The College Fix calculated that there were 1,194 employees per 1,000 students.
While Columbia University’s gap between employees and undergraduate students has grown in recent years alongside DEI programs, other universities have disbanded their DEI positions.
The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill’s board of trustees voted to end the school’s DEI department.
Funding for the DEI department will now go toward the campus police.
Marty Kotis, vice chair of the board’s budget and finance committee, said DEI is “discriminatory and divisive,” according to North Carolina Public Radio.
“I think that DEI in a lot of people’s minds is divisiveness, exclusion, and indoctrination,” Kotis said. “We need more unity and togetherness, more dialogue, more diversity of thought.”
