In March 2025, the University of Michigan loudly proclaimed that it would eliminate offices and programs dedicated to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). After spending a quarter of a billion dollars and employing hundreds of people to promote discriminatory DEI ideology, Michigan appeared to have seen the light. Finally, the university would end this massive waste of resources and rededicate itself to teaching and scholarship.
But according to a new report, Michigan’s apparent elimination of DEI was merely a ruse to get the federal government’s anti-discrimination enforcers off its back.
Eighty-four percent of Michigan’s DEI staff for 2025 are still employed by the university.
The total amount spent by the university on salaries for DEI employees increased between 2025 and 2026.
Instead of eliminating DEI staff and offices, Michigan is attempting to hide DEI from public scrutiny by changing office names and job titles. The “Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion” has become the “Office of Community, Culture, and Belonging.” The job title “Diversity Specialist” has changed to “Project Senior Manager.”
Michigan is following the underhanded tactics of institutions of higher education across the country. According to a 2025 report by Defending Education, 245 universities still have DEI offices or programs. Twenty-nine of these universities have attempted to hide their DEI offices by renaming them with vague terms such as “access,” “belonging,” and “community.”
Michigan’s machinations make it all the more important for states to pass the Goldwater Institute’s Abolish DEI Bureaucracies reform. Already adopted in Texas, Iowa, and several other states, this reform prohibits discriminatory and wasteful DEI offices. The policy clearly defines DEI as particular discriminatory initiatives, such as “any effort to promote differential treatment of or provide special benefits to individuals on the basis of race, color, or ethnicity.” This specificity prevents universities from sidestepping the requirements of the legislation by simply renaming DEI offices, as Michigan has done.
But eliminating DEI offices and positions is not enough. State legislators must also root out mandatory DEI in the academic curriculum. According to a recent study by Speech First, 67 percent of major universities require students to take DEI courses as a condition of graduation. Such courses force students to endure lectures on “microaggressions,” “intersectionality,” and “whiteness.” States should look to Goldwater’s Freedom from Indoctrination Act, which eliminates politicized DEI courses in academic requirements.
Finally, to prevent wasteful spending on faculty research that pushes DEI instead of sound scholarship, states should consider Goldwater’s American Higher Education Restoration Act, which ends automatic taxpayer funding for politicized “research.”
Together, these powerful reforms can help return public universities to their core missions: the pursuit of truth and the education of citizens.
Timothy K. Minella is Director of Higher Education at the Goldwater Institute.
