By: Ted Dabrowski
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices at universities across the country are coming under increased scrutiny for their failures. So much so that since 2021, twenty-one states have either banned or proposed banning DEI programs on college campuses.
And with good reason.
The growing backlash began with the Supreme Court ending affirmative action in higher education in June 2023. Then came the accusations of anti-semitism at Harvard and other Ivy League schools. The hypocrisy of DEI practices, both in theory and application, is finally getting a full showing.
So much so that at Wirepoints we have warned Illinois universities, especially U of I, to get ahead of the surging anti-woke backlash. To eliminate or pare down their DEI programs – and the requirement of “loyalty oaths” from professors – before they face wrath of unhappy donors and Americans fed up with “woke” excess.
Unfortunately, there seems to be no evidence of a pullback. The university is still employing dozens of DEI administrators with salaries in the six-figure range.
Leading the pack is Sean Garrick, Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, at the Urbana-Champaign campus. His salary of $364,091 is not only the highest among DEI employees in the U of I system, but the highest among all DEI employees across all state universities.
UIUC also has an Associate Vice Chancellor for Access and Equity and an Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity.
Meanwhile, the University of Illinois at Chicago has a Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Engagement who makes $237,000 and also has an Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity. All told, there are over a dozen director-level DEI staff under the U of I umbrella.
And the cost goes beyond just admin. A Wirepoints review of university personnel found that DEI is far more pervasive than we initially believed. From the College of Business to the School of Integrated Biology to the College of Engineering, DEI is everywhere.
Uncovering DEI
Wirepoints attempted to determine how pervasive DEI is at U of I through a Freedom of Information Act request. We requested staffing, organizational charts, job openings, and vendor payments related to DEI.
The university rejected all our requests as “unduly burdensome” except for staffing data.
On staffing, we requested “all current employees or faculty in positions related to, involving, and/or have any responsibilities associated with DEI departments, programs or initiatives under the University of Illinois System.”
According to the FOIA response, U of I employs a total of 79 “DEI” employees with compensation totaling $7.6 million (see Appendix). That likely includes employees with responsibilities related to federal compliance, such as Equal Employment, Title IX and the American Disabilities Act. Those roles were not specifically identified by the university in their response.
But those 79 officially-identified employees were just the tip of the iceberg.
Wirepoints dug into the university’s many webpages and found that DEI staffing is far more pervasive than the university said. Here are a few examples:
- On the university website, Eugene Moore is listed as an Assistant Dean for DEI, and Accessibility. Tepora Sua is the Assistant Director of DEI in the Chemical Sciences. Neither one was included in the employee list provided by the university.
- The Gies College of Business lists an Associate Dean of Equity.
- The Grainger College of Engineering has their own embedded institute and provides instructions on how faculty candidates can write a DEI statement and
- The Department of Psychology has an Ecologies of Liberation Lab that researches intersectionality.
- The Athletics Department includes Dr. Breanna Shamaila, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Sport Administration, Inclusion and Student-Athlete Development.
- Illinois International features an eleven person DEI committee.
- There is an initiative in the College of Education that focuses on equitable outcomes, not opportunities.
- Even the School of Integrated Biology – which researches “plants and animals and their associated microbes” – professes their commitment “to the engagement, equity, inclusion and leadership that dismantles systems that utilize power, privilege and violence to disenfranchise, diminish and destroy.”
Pervasiveness across campus
DEI goes far beyond personnel and titles. It’s also integrated into the university’s operations.
At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for example, where “Diversity, equity, and inclusion are core to the mission,” it takes the form of a plan with the Orwellian name Communication 9. Compliance is currently “optional” but will become mandatory in 2025.
Under Communication 9, DEI is embedded in performance evaluations for professors. Promotion and tenure decisions are to be based in part on the adequacy of the DEI work performed. “Show your work” is taken literally as staff must draft a strong statement about not only their current DEI efforts, but “clear and detailed plans for future DEI efforts” as well.
Staff are also warned to be “sensitive about the use of language that perpetuate prejudices and words that apply external value judgments that minimize the experiences, strengths, and contributions of individuals and/or groups historically marginalized and/or underrepresented in academia.”
Pare down…or else
Scrutiny is already headed Illinois’ way. The Southern Illinois University medical school was recently hit by a discrimination complaint by Cornell Law School professor William Jacobson for issuing scholarships based on race or gender-based identity.
More complaints and lawsuits could emerge if U of I and the rest of Illinois’ public universities don’t start paring down their efforts in DEI.
Not doing so might end up being a damaging, and costly, mistake.
Appendix
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If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Back during the 1930s, my father was involved with the labor movement and worked with Communists and Wobblies to organize the meat packing industry. He evolved into a Paul Douglas Democrat and a respected social studies teacher and believed passionately in issues like (small d) diversity, equity and inclusion. He joined the ACLU and helped get Black athletes into college when the University of Illinois would not recruit them. But every year he had to sign a loyalty oath, and the FBI followed him for the rest of his life, even quizzing the neighbors for any signs of disloyalty. He… Read more »
Trumpism is really just Democrat’s position on most issues back in 1996 with the face of Trump, which you can chose to ignore. DIE is straight up communism.
Bravo. Thanks sharing that.
Definition of DEI D- Diversity. You believe our lives, and our futures are meaningless unless we are the right color and nationality. You will decide what is right, not us. We have no choice but to abide by your decisions. E-Equity means you never have to do anything and you will always be entitled to everything others have worked hard to earn and achieve. You can just take it. Don’t ask or work for it, expect it and it’s yours. I- Inclusion. Even though we aren’t included everywhere, you will be. There are many things you do and places you… Read more »
I would love to see the bank accounts and the political donations here. Paying for your job and especially big time clout heavy high paying jobs has long been the Chicago way. JB is a transactional politician and I am sure these appointments are connected. Keep in mind there are names on JBs staff that have always been connected to the old ways. Yes you have to be qualified but I wonder how qualified? This is how he uses his offshore warchest. He is the biggest part of the problem and he knows how the system works completely. The pension… Read more »
Wow. Way too many POC make-work jobs with six-figure paychecks. Universities are sufficiently woke to not require a DEI enforcement team to ensure 24/7 woke-thoughts enacted and enforced.
Would be interesting for Wirepoints to track-back employment recommendations for each of 25 highest-paid persons, to identify who their political-sponsors were. Suspect none of these highly-compensated positions were awarded to unconnected persons with stellar academic records.
These entitled wokesters have no fear, as the imperial wizard of wokeness, Jumbo Boy Pritzker will protect them from any backlash. That’s how they see this whole situation. They deserve egregious compensation due to some perceived slight in their incredibly undistinguished past. Anyone with an ounce of common sense and decency stopped contributing to higher education institutions long ago.
This is criminal – waste of tax payer monies.
Ever notice how the Democrats whine about the salaries in corporate America, but never have an issue with morons at universities pulling down the same salaries?
DEI stands for Discrimination, Exclusion, and Indoctrination. It is essentially, discrimination and racism against whites and asians and others who are deemed to be “entitled.” I will simply not give a dime to any of my Universities that I graduated from if they install such DEI woke policies, or teach CRT (Critical Race Theory). This is so orwellian and anti American that it turns my stomach. We all must say NO to such efforts, stop giving money to these Universities, and demand that Illinois does what Texas did, and that is to end DEI/CRT for all public Universities (as well… Read more »
DEI equals Dumb Educational initiatives,
Let’s see how woke works when the money dries up. Remember Brandon’s favorite
Phrase, “ First we get the money “.
When the money is gone they won’t get
Nothing.
The “ Usual gang of idiots “ watches as the
State continues to go down by the bow.
Hmm…kind of like how the price commissars were embedded into companies in Nazi Germany. This entryism into the universities was never about bringing about diversity and positive change, but to promote and embed Marxist thought into our institutions and into our young people. It’s about revolution and division, not about “diversity”.
In the end, it’s really about money spent to sit around flagging gums about changing the world and accomplishing nothing. They need a wake up call like the hippies got at The Rolling Stones concert in Altamont in 1969.