ANN ARBOR, MI - According to an analysis by the College Fix, the University of Michigan (UM) has nearly 241 paid employees working in positions focused solely on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices with payroll costs exceeding $30 million annually.
The university does not plan to slow down as they keep growing the number of staffers dedicated to DEI at their institution. The $30 million spent annually includes payroll costs at $23.34 million and $7.44 million for benefits, which could cover the in-state tuition and fees for 1,781 undergraduate students.
When factoring in the benefits package, 13 DEI staff members earn more than $200,000 per year and 66 earn more than $100,000 per year. According to economist Mark Perry, who conducted the analysis, 76 faculty or staff members work part-time as "DEI Unit Leads," bringing UM's core DEI headcount to 317. As "DEI Unit Leads," these staffers work on advancing diversity efforts in one of UM's 51 schools, colleges, and units.
Perry, who is also a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that the number of positions at UM whose sole purpose is to advance DEI practices and initiatives, exceeds more than 500 when including those who work full-time or part-time, this includes factoring in open and unfilled positions as well as the employees who serve as the "DEI Unit Leads" and others who serve on dozens of DEI committees.
Perry said, "That brings the total number of UM employees who advance DEI on either a paid or unpaid basis to well more than 500 and possible as high as 600." In a statement to the College Fix, Colleen Mastony, a UM spokesperson, disputed those findings, saying they are "flawed and misleading" since they include employees whose primary responsibilities are not solely DEI-related.
Mastony said, "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. Most employees working on DEI are not solely dedicated to DEI efforts, but do so in addition to their other roles and responsibilities."
She added, "...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 departmental level."
According to Perry, who used public salary and website data for the analysis, as of this writing, UM employs at least 241 paid staff members whose main duties are to provide DEI programming and services as a primary job responsibility.
UM has implemented a five-year Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) 2.0 plan, which states that the university's 19 academic schools and colleges and its 32 non-academic units must not also implement DEI plans. The non-academic units include the school's three libraries, art museum, botanical gardens, IT department, athletics, development, audit services and more.
Perry said, "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 and dictatorial regimes." He added, "UM has become a DEI ideological complex with a university attached."
Additionally, the $30.68 million cost to fund the 241 DEI employees does not include indirect costs, such as computers, phones, printers, travel expenses, conference expenses, and overtime. According to the Daily Wire, some DEI staff the UM bring in enormous salaries, with Tabbye Chavous Sellers, UM's Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion & Chief Diversity Officer, making a whopping $402,800 a year. That is nearly double what the average full-time professor on campus makes in a year.
She is also paid nearly 2.5 times more than the governor of Michigan and about three times more than the average assistant or associate professor. The average salary for DEI staff members is $96,000, not including benefits. The 2023-2024 totals are extremely larger than the previous year's figures, which came in at 142 DEI employees at a payroll cost of $18 million. The excessive jump can be contributed to the Diversity 2.0 plan, which "outlines UM's diverse, inclusive future" over the next five years, from 2023 to 2028.
According to an article published in the Michigan Review, UM's new DEI 2.0 plan comes on the heels of its first $85 million, 5-year DEI 1.0 Plan, which went from 2016 to 2021. Then-student Charles Hilu, argued that the survey results show that "DEI 1.0 has been a failure, and it is not because of a lack of resources. If the largest number of diversicrats in the country cannot improve life on campus, there is something wrong at the heart of the effort."
Hilu said that the new figures are even more disheartening, writing in an email to the College Fix, "Given the program's track record, it is unfortunate that the DEI bureaucracy is ballooning even further."
The university does not plan to slow down as they keep growing the number of staffers dedicated to DEI at their institution. The $30 million spent annually includes payroll costs at $23.34 million and $7.44 million for benefits, which could cover the in-state tuition and fees for 1,781 undergraduate students.
When factoring in the benefits package, 13 DEI staff members earn more than $200,000 per year and 66 earn more than $100,000 per year. According to economist Mark Perry, who conducted the analysis, 76 faculty or staff members work part-time as "DEI Unit Leads," bringing UM's core DEI headcount to 317. As "DEI Unit Leads," these staffers work on advancing diversity efforts in one of UM's 51 schools, colleges, and units.
Perry, who is also a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said that the number of positions at UM whose sole purpose is to advance DEI practices and initiatives, exceeds more than 500 when including those who work full-time or part-time, this includes factoring in open and unfilled positions as well as the employees who serve as the "DEI Unit Leads" and others who serve on dozens of DEI committees.
Perry said, "That brings the total number of UM employees who advance DEI on either a paid or unpaid basis to well more than 500 and possible as high as 600." In a statement to the College Fix, Colleen Mastony, a UM spokesperson, disputed those findings, saying they are "flawed and misleading" since they include employees whose primary responsibilities are not solely DEI-related.
Mastony said, "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. Most employees working on DEI are not solely dedicated to DEI efforts, but do so in addition to their other roles and responsibilities."
She added, "...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 departmental level."
According to Perry, who used public salary and website data for the analysis, as of this writing, UM employs at least 241 paid staff members whose main duties are to provide DEI programming and services as a primary job responsibility.
UM has implemented a five-year Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) 2.0 plan, which states that the university's 19 academic schools and colleges and its 32 non-academic units must not also implement DEI plans. The non-academic units include the school's three libraries, art museum, botanical gardens, IT department, athletics, development, audit services and more.
Perry said, "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 and dictatorial regimes." He added, "UM has become a DEI ideological complex with a university attached."
Additionally, the $30.68 million cost to fund the 241 DEI employees does not include indirect costs, such as computers, phones, printers, travel expenses, conference expenses, and overtime. According to the Daily Wire, some DEI staff the UM bring in enormous salaries, with Tabbye Chavous Sellers, UM's Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion & Chief Diversity Officer, making a whopping $402,800 a year. That is nearly double what the average full-time professor on campus makes in a year.
She is also paid nearly 2.5 times more than the governor of Michigan and about three times more than the average assistant or associate professor. The average salary for DEI staff members is $96,000, not including benefits. The 2023-2024 totals are extremely larger than the previous year's figures, which came in at 142 DEI employees at a payroll cost of $18 million. The excessive jump can be contributed to the Diversity 2.0 plan, which "outlines UM's diverse, inclusive future" over the next five years, from 2023 to 2028.
According to an article published in the Michigan Review, UM's new DEI 2.0 plan comes on the heels of its first $85 million, 5-year DEI 1.0 Plan, which went from 2016 to 2021. Then-student Charles Hilu, argued that the survey results show that "DEI 1.0 has been a failure, and it is not because of a lack of resources. If the largest number of diversicrats in the country cannot improve life on campus, there is something wrong at the heart of the effort."
Hilu said that the new figures are even more disheartening, writing in an email to the College Fix, "Given the program's track record, it is unfortunate that the DEI bureaucracy is ballooning even further."
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