UMDEIdefense

@umdeidefense.bsky.social

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Brendan Cantwell, a higher education professor at Michigan State University, said Ryan’s resignation is a “major blow” to the independence of American institutions. “It is a sign that major public research universities are substantially controlled by a political party whose primary goal is to further its partisan agenda and will stop at nothing to bring the independence of higher education to heel,” he told Inside Higher Ed. “It undercuts both the integrity of academic communities as self-governing based on the judgment of expert professionals and the traditional accountability that public universities have to their states via formal and established governance mechanisms.”
Time after time during his public interviews, both before the state board and UF’s trustees, Ono showed a willingness to embrace positions popular among conservatives or to renounce his past liberal stances. Questioned about mandating Covid vaccines, for example, Ono played down the real-world applicability of his hard-earned academic credentials, pronouncing himself a mere “mouse doctor,” and “a test-tube guy.” It was, for some who watched, a cringy and telling moment in which a well-educated person seemed willingly to shun the one thing academics value most: expertise.
President Ono said, “I’m very pleased that DEI 1.0 has taken place…. It’s a very strong foundation upon which we must build… We have to be committed to continuous positive momentum. And if you don’t do that, then you’ll take one step forward, two steps back. So, it’s incredibly important to me, from these early days that I’m here to clearly show that I’m behind DEI 1.0, but also to making sure that, when we proceed and embark on DEI 2.0, that we do so with even more vigor and even more determination.”
President Santa Ono and the University of Michigan leadership prematurely succumbed to that pressure when they announced the “evolution of DEI,” by which they really meant the “termination of DEI.” I have never been so disappointed by the place where I’ve worked as a professor for 18 years. And I highly doubt that it will protect us from anything.
The University’s choice to jettison DEI must be understood within this context. Ono and the Board have been moving in an authoritarian direction for months. Even before President Donald Trump entered office for the second time, Regent Sarah Hubbard (R) was talking about reevaluating DEI on Fox & Friends and Regent Mark Bernstein (D) had expressed doubts about the program to The New York Times.
Stand up to University Suppression. Meet us on the Diag. April 10th, 5pm. From the Black Student Union.
There is another aspect to University President Ono’s email that made me feel sick to my stomach. The letter was issued one week after Giving Blueday. I can’t help but wonder if this was purposefully planned so as not to impact donor contributions with the impending ending of DEI offices and programs.
Statement by the U of Michigan Latino Alumni Association Board expressing deep disappointment with the decision to close the Office of DEI.