Who Will Champion DEI?

In an age when unprecedented governmental intimidation is forcing major universities to eliminate DEI programs, imposing shocking financial penalties for resistance, who will champion sustaining a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion?  

Patricia A. McGuireThe current political administration has embarked on an aggressive campaign to wipe out any semblance of DEI practices, claiming that DEI is illegal. This is simply not true, and yet one major university after another has bowed down to the commands of the overlords. This abject response, given ostensibly in a futile effort to protect the economic interests of the institutions, betrays higher education’s moral commitments to our students, faculty, staff and alumni — particularly those who are persons of color, or women, or immigrants, or who identify as LGBTQ, or who are marginalized in so many ways by the dominant culture.  In the most diverse society the world has ever known, supporting diverse student populations in college is both a moral imperative and a social necessity for our nation’s future.

Yes, there are some courageous exceptions. Harvard has chosen a profoundly expensive legal battle; they have the resources.  University of Virginia President Jim Ryan chose to resign rather than subject that venerable university to the pernicious consequences of a similar fight; UVA may suffer anyway.  George Mason University President Gregory Washington, one of the best in the business and the first Black president of Virginia’s largest public university, is standing his ground — so far.  He gave a rousing defense of DEI in his recent letter to the Mason community, demonstrating a model that should inspire more presidents to stand up and be counted.

Let’s talk about what IS illegal.  It’s illegal, yes, to choose candidates for admission or hiring or other benefits based solely on their race or gender in ways that disadvantage or exclude others who are equally qualified.  Because, historically, white males were almost always favored in hiring and admissions, generations of advocates for justice demonstrated, lobbied, marched, were beaten, imprisoned, firehosed and eventually successful in securing the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 signed by none other than that old segregationist President Lyndon B. Johnson.

As George Mason President Washington wrote in his letter to his campus community, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act “…was enacted to dismantle explicit and systemic racial discrimination that denied access to education, employment, housing, and public services based solely on race, color, or national origin. It was designed to ensure that no person in the United States would be excluded from participation in federally funded programs because of who they are.”

Now, the current political administration, in league with some very wealthy rightwing interests, is turning the civil rights victories and legal protections of the last half century on their heads, allowing the provisions of the Civil Rights Act to defeat programs and protections for the very people the law was created to help.

This perversion of the Civil Rights Act has become a weapon to undermine and destabilize the academic autonomy and mission values of colleges and universities that have long held commitments to racial and social justice as central to their work. Teaching students how to live and work together in the most diverse society the world has ever known is certainly not illegal or wrong — it is a moral imperative!  Making it possible for persons who were historically barred from higher education to have opportunities to go to college is not only not illegal, it is essential to this nation’s health, security and long-term domestic peace.