In the most generous interpretation of last week’s events, University of Michigan President Santa Ono, top U-M administrators and the Board of Regents saw the writing on the wall, and opted for the course of action that would allow the school to continue to fulfill its core missions of educating young people and performing vital research without running aground on the Trump Administration’s slash-and-burn of American institutions.
Last month, the federal government froze $400 million in grants to Columbia University, saying the school has allowed rampant on-campus antisemitism, and placed U-M on a watchlist of 60 universities under scrutiny for DEI programs.
Two weeks ago, Columbia capitulated to President Donald Trump’s demands, including hiring a new internal police force and appointing a senior vice provost to oversee its Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies Department along with other concessions.
And U-M officials announced last Thursday that the school is shuttering the institution’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Office for Health Equity and Inclusion, ending a nearly 10-year effort that cost a reported $250 million. (Leaders of U-M’s DEI programs contest that figure, saying it includes the full salaries of employees who work part-time on DEI.)
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Project 2025 ― that’s the document Trump disavowed on the campaign trail but has been busily implementing since taking office two long months ago ― has a lot to say about American universities, and most of it isn’t good.
The report’s authors describe at length their view of colleges and universities as integral to “the Great Awokening” ― the corruption of our institutions and rejection of the U.S. Constitution by power-mad liberals and deviant, predatory elites intent on the destruction of America via radical Marxism, propelled by complicity with the Chinese Communist Party and the “secret lifeblood” of unaccountable federal funding. (I really wish I were exaggerating, but you can download a copy of Project 2025 and read it for yourself. Start on page 6.) The hold of Marxist elites on universities, particularly those with DEI programs, has to be broken, Project 2025 says, and the government has to use the threat of withholding money to do it.
And here we are.
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But why AI?
Discussions about the future of DEI at U-M started late last year, Ono and other top administrators wrote in a letter to the campus community, I’m guessing sometime around October, when a New York Times piece delved into the return on investment for DEI at the institution.
But in last week’s letter, the group pointed to two executive orders issued by Trump barring DEI in the federal government; a third executive order effectively dismantling the U.S. Department of Education and requiring further scrutiny of DEI programs; and an Education Department advisory that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring use of affirmative action in college admissions applies more broadly to other university practices and programs.
There’s a real threat, here, as Trump and unelected efficiency edgelord Elon Musk slash government with a wild abandon unheard of in American history.
Instead of DEI, Ono and other top officials wrote in the letter, the university will add mental health resources, expand a support program for students who spent time in foster care and “seek opportunities” to expand welcoming student life programming.
Officials also pointed to a previously announced investment expanding the school’s Go Blue Guarantee to offer free tuition to Michigan students with household incomes of $125,000 or less ― the program was initially capped at $75,000 ― said the school will continue to maintain multicultural spaces on campus and support cultural and ethnic events, and bolster the university’s AI offerings: “… such as our 24/7 AI tutors and a personal AI assistant for every member of our community.”
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DEI and ROI
It should be possible to have a reasonable conversation about the results of the university’s DEI program: The school’s DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan reports that between 2016 and 2020, the number of Black students at U-M increased by 12, which seems like a bad joke. (I took detailed notes last week from the report, which is is no longer available on the university’s website.) During the same period, enrollment overall outpaced the growth in Black student enrollment, meaning that despite modest growth, Black students account for a smaller percentage of the student body.
But there is no room for reasonable conversation in the Trump-Musk-Project 2025 scorched earth campaign. There’s give in, or get burned.
Still, a program doesn’t have to be titled “DEI” to do the work of diversity, equity and inclusion. Expanding the school’s Go Blue Guarantee is a good start. I hope the university also invests in its Wolverine Pathways program, which starts working with middle school students in cities like Detroit, Pontiac and Saginaw to prepare them not just for acceptance to U-M, but to thrive in the academic environment.
And I hope U-M ditches AI.
Here’s a good baseline for accuracy: Ask generative AI to summarize the plot of your favorite TV show, then tell me whether you want it tutoring your child.
The fallibility of AI is so well known that we have a name for the made-up results it returns ― “hallucinations” ― and yet somehow, “more AI” is what leaders of the University of Michigan believe parents who’ve sacrificed to send their children to Ann Arbor want.
There is no question that the University of Michigan is in a tough spot. It’s even possible to argue that this check was already in the mail, but university leaders waited until discontinuing DEI would pacify the bellicose Trump Administration.
But Ono and team have a tricky job ahead ― convince students that the university’s decision was strategic, not craven. Convince parents and donors of same. Improve diversity of the school’s student body, without inflaming Trump’s ire.
And I have to tell you, this odd obsession with AI makes me wonder if they’re up to the job.
Nancy Kaffer is the editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters, and we may publish it online and in print.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Trump war on DEI at U-M is a scorched earth offensive | Opinion
Reporting by Nancy Kaffer, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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