The University of Michigan’s (UM) spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) increased 66% in one school year.
During the 2022-2023 academic year, the school spent $18 million on DEI payroll.
Between the 2023-2024 school year, UM’s spending surged to $30 million.
According to an analysis from Mark Perry, a senior fellow at Do No Harm, UM had 132 full-time diversity employees in 2022-2023 and now has more than 300.
UM released a “DEI 2.0 Plan” detailing its five-year DEI strategy.
“In this next phase of our DEI strategic plan, we are prepared to build on our institutional commitment to ensuring a diverse, equitable and inclusive community with even more sharply defined goals, new innovations and investments, and enhanced measures of accountability – shaped and informed by our own University community. We will continue to test new ideas, assess our progress, and have difficult conversations about tough issues. We will continue to listen, and we will learn as we move forward—together,” the report reads.
“UM’s five-year diversity central plans are reminiscent of the Soviet Union’s and Communist China’s five-year central plans to achieve ‘Ideal Communist Societies’ which are examples of top-down oppressive bureaucratic blueprints to socially engineer outcomes decided by the top leadership of the dictatorial regimes,” Perry said of the report.
Collen Mastony, a university spokesperson, told The College Fix in an email, “Diversity, equity and inclusion are core values at the University of Michigan. As such, there is not a specific budget set aside for diversity outreach and recruitment.”
“The university’s DEI efforts are appropriate to the size, scope, and complexity of our university – spanning the university, including 51 units over our three campuses, our academic medical center, and our over 100,000 students and employees. Although some work is done centrally, much of it is done at the unit and department level,” Mastony added.
