The University of Michigan (UM) has spent approximately $250 million on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives since 2016, leading to high tensions among students and faculty on campus. The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

UM initially committed $85 million to launch a new DEI push in 2016 and has spent more than $18 million on DEI-specific jobs alone from 2022 to 2023. According to From the NYT report. Despite numerous efforts to strengthen DEI efforts, college campuses have created a “culture of grievance” through protests, civil rights complaints, and disputes over alleged hate crimes.

In an attempt to strengthen diversity efforts on campus, the university launched DEI 1.0 in 2016, with multiple smaller units set up around the university and a larger, more central diversity initiative. The office will now track each small unit’s DEI implementation in coursework and budgeting, the NYT said. Reported.

The second phase of the original DEI strategy, called “DEI 2.0,” expanded efforts following the 2022 strategy. investigation The New York Times claims that the rollout was flawed, leaving students, faculty and staff feeling less included than when the initiative began. “DEI 2.0” added additional training, “anti-racism dialogues” and special consultants to individual DEI units on campus. (Related: Red State University Eliminates Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Ahead of New Law)

Even though the DEI initiative was intended to create a sense of belonging, a 2022 study on campus climate found that students are of a different racial, religious, or political persuasion than before the push began. They found that they were less likely to interact with other people, the paper said. New York Times. Complaints about civil rights on campus skyrocketed From 200 companies in 2015 to more than 500 companies in 2023.

The campus has also been the site of a spate of pro-Palestinian protests since the October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas, including an incident in which a large red “X” was painted on a Star of David on a rock near the campus. According to the New York Times. A second Star of David with an equal sign and a swastika was painted on a bench outside the Hillel campus.

Some anti-Israel demonstrators on campus also spoke out against the school’s DEI efforts, including a student demonstrator holding a sign that read “DEI 2.0 = Funding Genocide!” Ta. In response to the university dispersing the encampment, the NYT reported.

After being pressured to speak out on behalf of the school, Daishia Price, the school’s DEI director, said that individuals who chose to remain neutral regarding their position on the Israel-Hamas war had “a hell of a life”. He was told that there was a place like that. New York Times.

Despite the university’s numerous efforts to expand DEI since 2016, black student enrollment remains low this fall, with only about 5% of students being black, according to the NYT.

The University of Michigan did not immediately provide comment to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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