Massive DEI efforts have not increased grad rates for students of color: study

The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that the McKinsey analysis blamed the achievement gap on “[p]oor-quality K-12 education, selective admissions practices, and a lack of faculty diversity.”

Despite the ineffectiveness of DEI initiatives over the past decades, the analysis advised colleges to “reflect on their own racist history and their campus culture, evaluate their student-recruitment strategies, and invest more in diversity efforts, such as expanding dual-enrollment programs, forgiving student debts, and partnering with minority-serving institutions,” the Chronicle reported.

How much more money needs to be spent on diversity remains to be seen, but the costs are already quite high, according to Mark Perry, a scholar with the American Enterprise Institute and professor emeritus of economics and finance at the University of Michigan Flint.

For example, the 93 employees with the University of Michigan’s Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion receive a combined $10.6 million in annual salaries, according to Perry’s calculations.

Such spending patterns by universities on DEI efforts can be seen nationwide. Take Columbia University, which dedicated $185 million to support DEI from 2005 to 2019. American University spent $61 million on diversity in 2019 alone.