DEI Archives - The Michigan Star

‘U of M Is Controlled by Wealthy Jews:’ Alleged Comments from Michigan DEI Official Leads to Firing

December 16, 2024December 16, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

A Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) officer is without a job after the University of Michigan fired her for antisemitic remarks and “extremely poor” judgement stemming from an incident nine months ago.

The New York Times reports that Rachel Dawson, the former director of the university’s Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, reportedly made antisemitic comments in a conversation at a conference in March. Documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show Dawson allegedly said U of M was “controlled by wealthy Jews.”

Michigan State Legislature Considers Election Bills Undermining Election Integrity, Critics Warn

December 13, 2024December 13, 2024 Just the News

The Michigan state legislature is considering several election bills which would undermine election integrity if enacted, according to election integrity proponents.

The election bills that are being considered for passage by the lame-duck session of the state legislature are the Michigan Voting Rights Act, National Popular Vote legislation, and restrictions on voter roll transparency and election challengers. Election integrity advocates are concerned about the negative impact these bills will have on elections, from creating a “lawfare state” to changing how the state will allocate its electoral votes.

California’s Major University Accreditor Wants to Elimanate DEI Requirements

December 9, 2024 Daily Caller News Foundation

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) is considering removing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) language from its accreditation standards.

The accreditor is responsible for overseeing the entire University of California (UC) system, the California State University system and several religious institutions. The proposed update to the standards would remove language requiring universities to commit to DEI in order to receive accreditation.

Commentary: The Things Trump Nominees Have Not Done—And Will Not Do

December 7, 2024 American Greatness

Deflated by the resounding November defeat, the left now believes it can magically rebound by destroying Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees.

Many of Trump’s picks are well outside the usual Washington, DC/New York political, media, and corporate nexus.

University at Buffalo Hosts Event About ‘Decolonizing Thanksgiving’

November 28, 2024 American Greatness

The New York University at Buffalo hosted a forum last week with a clear anti-Thanksgiving bias, questioning whether or not it is “right to celebrate Thanksgiving,” and discussed “decolonizing” the historic holiday.

As reported by Breitbart, the event was hosted on November 21st in the university’s Intercultural and Diversity Center (IDC), as part of a series of forums titled “Tough Topics.” These events are described as “weekly open forums” where current events, national and global, are discussed.

FEMA’s DEI Spending Under Scrutiny

November 22, 2024 The Center Square

FEMA on the ground after Hurricane Helene

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is facing scrutiny for its spending on diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

Lawmakers at a House Oversight Committee hearing Tuesday pressed FEMA head Deanne Criswell on FEMA’s DEI spending.

Trump Takes His Time with Secret Service Director Choice

November 20, 2024 RealClearWire

It just might be the most personal hiring decision President-elect Trump will ever make, but if he’s already chosen, he’s keeping the contenders in suspense.

After surviving two assassination attempts in roughly two months, Donald Trump is in the awkward position of owing his life to the Secret Service agents and officers who intervened to protect him, even as he remains deeply critical of the failures that allowed the near-misses to occur.

Trump’s Choice for FCC Chairman Vows to End Promotion of DEI, Dismantle ‘Censorship Cartel’

November 18, 2024 Just the News

Brendan Carr, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has promised to end the agency’s promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies as part of his agency.

“The FCC’s most recent budget request said that promoting DEI was the agency’s second-highest strategic goal. Starting next year, the FCC will end its promotion of DEI,” Carr said.

Investment Advisors Warn Top Corporations Diversity Initiatives Are ‘Now a Liability’ Under Trump Admin

November 16, 2024 Daily Caller News Foundation

Dozens of investment advisors warned America’s biggest corporations Friday that their diversity programs will be a liability under the incoming Trump administration.

Americans “overwhelmingly rejected the ideological takeover of political and civic life by narrow-minded identity politics” in the Nov. 5 election, a coalition of 38 financial officers wrote in letters warning companies that the new administration will “hasten the demise of DEI.”

Analysis: Helene Gave Way to ‘Hurricane SNAFU’ in the Carolinas

November 15, 2024 RealClearWire

It wasn’t as if the Tar Heel state didn’t see Hurricane Helene coming. On Sept. 25, one day before Helene stormed ashore, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency as the storm’s path showed it churning northward toward Appalachia after making landfall in Florida.

Yet that advance declaration was not followed by any state evacuation orders, and the population largely sheltered in place as Helene hit the steep, wooded hills of western North Carolina, squatting over the area, unleashing more than an inch of water an hour for more than a day. The unprecedented, relentless downpour, falling on ground already saturated by rain the week before, tore old pines and hardwoods out by the roots, creating arboreal torpedoes that rocketed down the steep inclines; water that turned photogenic stony creeks into whitewater torrents, lifting ancient streambed boulders and tossing them like chips on to roads and into homes and buildings. The storm left 230 people dead, nearly half of them in North Carolina, with dozens still missing as of early November.

House Passes Bills to Protect Employee Benefit Plans from Politicization

September 23, 2024 The Center Square

A package of bills to ensure employee benefits plans prioritize financial well-being over “woke” policies has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Outgoing Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Good sponsored the Protecting Americans’ Investments from Woke Policies Act and the No Discrimination in My Benefits Act, which cleared the House 217-206.

Despite Billions in Backing, Studies Show Diversity Trainings Just Aren’t Working

September 15, 2024 Daily Caller News Foundation

A wealth of research suggests that the billions of dollars corporate America, academia and government agencies have spent on diversity training have done little to impact people’s behavior.

What impact diversity trainings do have is often short-lived or purely influences beliefs without impacting actions, according to a review of multiple meta-analyses, a type of research that summarizes the results of hundreds of studies. American businesses alone spend roughly $8 billion a year on the same diversity trainings research suggests are ineffective, according to the Harvard Business Review.

U.S. Toolmaker Stanley Black and Decker Under Fire for DEI Hiring and LGBTQ Lobbying, Faces Boycott

September 9, 2024 Just the News

U.S. toolmaker Stanley Black and Decker is under fire for embracing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies that conservatives describe as “woke,” which could lead to a boycott of the company’s products.

University of Kentucky to Shut Down DEI Office

August 26, 2024 American Greatness

In the latest blow for the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement, the University of Kentucky has announced that it will be shuttering its DEI offices.

As reported by Breitbart, the University of Kentucky follows multiple other schools in Texas, Florida, and Alabama who have already taken the step of shutting down official DEI practices on-campus, where school administrators would facilitate the discrimination of student applicants and faculty hires on the basis of race and gender.

Non-Profit Launches Investigation into Secret Service Use of DEI Policies

August 24, 2024 American Greatness

A non-profit organization has started its own investigation into the Secret Service’s use of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices that many have suggested has compromised the quality of the agency’s protection, following the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump last month.

According to Fox News, the investigation is being carried out by the Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF), a Colorado-based non-profit. MSLF’s probe will take a closer look at how DEI has negatively affected the agency’s hiring, retention, and promotion of agents, prioritizing race- and gender-based identity politics over competence.

Commentary: DEI Litmus Tests Must End

August 10, 2024 RealClearWire

Ideological litmus tests have no place in higher education. They weaponize loyalty and contradict the university’s purpose of fostering academic inquiry and informed debates. Scholars cannot pursue truth or progress if they are denied academic jobs based on their devotion to a specific political ideology or philosophy.

I applaud states like Florida, Alabama, Wyoming, Tennessee, and Texas that have banned varied Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) requirements that mandate loyalty to its agenda. But we need to go further. Congress can deny federal funding to universities that impose DEI on faculty, administrators, and staff. Conservative lawmakers are already trying to “dismantle” DEI in the federal government and others are currently weighing defunding universities over Title VI violations. They should extend defunding to universities that require DEI.

Commentary: The Harris Flop Would Be Scarier than Her Flip

August 9, 2024August 8, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

Joe Biden won in 2020 on the premise that until the November election, he would pose as good ol’ Joe from Scranton and not scare voters.

So Biden talked about “unity” and “competency.” He erased his prior wild primary pandering to left-wing voters about shutting down fracking and opening the border.

Commentary: The DEI Trap

August 4, 2024 RealClearWire

Kamala Harris’s sudden ascendancy within the Democrat Party, with nary a peep from other ambitious Democrats, spotlights the uncomfortable contradictions of identity politics and the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement.

Americans universally believe that everyone should have a fair shot at opportunities regardless of sex or race, which is why the kind of racism and sexism that was once so prevalent is so rare today.

Parents Petition Denver Schools to Stop ‘Seal of Diversity’ Program

August 1, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

A Denver high school allows students to take classes such as Queer Literature and Gender Studies to earn a “Seal of Diversity” award.

Students can submit a short, five-minute application to be part of the program, then take “diversity, equity, and inclusion”-related classes and engage with a DEI-related club or organization on campus to receive the award, according to documents obtained by The Daily Signal through a Colorado Open Records Act request.

Commentary: Racism and Sexism Are the Campaign Theme of the Harris-Whoever Ticket

July 27, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

Is Kamala Harris the quintessential DEI hire? It’s a legitimate question, given that Joe Biden made it clear during his 2020 election-year campaign that he would only consider a black woman for his VP slot. As president, he also claimed that the choice of Supreme Court Justice replacement for Stephen Breyer would be limited to a black woman. Not even the most qualified black woman, just someone possessing dark skin and lady parts.

Biden could have simply told the country that he was going to choose the most qualified person for either position. Instead, he said that his choice was going to be based primarily on skin color and gender.

Commentary: An Assassination Attempt Reveals DEI’s False Promises

July 20, 2024 RealClearWire

For over a half century the proponents of DEI and its intellectual precursors have fought from high ground, not from a moral position, but a tactical and strategic one secured by Marxist indoctrination that has pervaded nearly every corner of society.

The deliberate and methodical campaign has successfully muted public criticism, although privately most Americans felt that there is something terribly wrong with a philosophy that prioritizes appearance over ability.   DEI’s commanding role in all branches of the military has resulted in no tangible benefits but a myriad of failures—falling morale and standards, recruitment shortfalls, plummeting public confidence in the military, poor leadership, and with the exception of the Marine Corps, the inability to fulfill basic mission requirements at an acceptable level.

John Deere Commits to Ending Controversial DEI Policies Including ‘Pronoun Identification’ and ‘Diversity Quotas’

July 18, 2024 Kaitlin Housler

John Deere, the American manufacturing company of agricultural machinery and other heavy equipment, announced its commitment to end a number of its DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) policies for employees after a number of the company’s controversial policies were investigated and exposed by Tennessee political commentator and documentary filmmaker Robby Starbuck.

The company posted a statement explaining changes to a number of its internal policies on socia

Defense Department Hid DEI Relaunch in K-12 Schools, Emotionally Manipulates Students: Watchdog

July 15, 2024 Just the News

As the Democrat-controlled Senate prepares to debate and consider amendments to the fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which already passed the GOP-led House with several amendments supported by Anti-Woke Caucus members, a transparency group is shining a light on the curriculum and vendors in the Pentagon’s 70,000-student school system.

The K-12 Department of Defense Education Activity, probed in a January hearing on “progressive ideologies in the U.S. military,” simply reshuffled its “radical” diversity, equity and inclusion programs and staff after reassigning DEI chief Kelisa Wing and deleting its DEI Division page, according to a report by OpenTheBooks.com published Thursday.

House Passes $883 Billion Defense Spending Bill with Abortion, LGBT Provisions

June 15, 2024 Just the News

The House on Friday approved an $883.7 billion defense spending bill that includes provisions addressing a number of provisions addressing social issues such as abortion, LGBT matters, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices.

The inclusion of such provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is sure to set up a standoff with Senate Democrats, which have not yet released the upper chamber’s version of the plan, according to The Hill.

Commentary: The Left Knows Leftism Doesn’t Work

June 11, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

Joe Biden in front of a burning building (composite image)

Do not expect the radical left to survey the wreckage of socialism and communism in history and accept that statism impoverishes people and erodes their freedoms. There will never be admissions by our elite that progressivism exists mainly for the acquisition of power by the utopian and virtue-signaling few, who ensure that they are never subject to the baleful implementation of their ideological agendas on the rest of us.

Still, leftists look around at what they have done to America in the last four years and implicitly know that the plan did not work, the people detested it, or both.

DEI Programs Could Soon Face Supreme Court

June 10, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

The controversial business practice known as “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) could soon see its legal challenges take it all the way to the Supreme Court.

According to Axios, the case that could spark Supreme Court action was filed by the same group that successfully saw the practice of affirmative action overturned by the court last year. The current case saw an appeals court ultimately rule that a venture capital firm had to shut down its grant program that was exclusively for black women.

Commentary: Bob Iger, DEI, and Wokism Broke Disney’s Trust with America

June 8, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

There is something of a subculture on YouTube of armchair analysts and commentators, WDW Pro, Valliant Renegade, and ClownfishTV, to name just three (beyond traditional financial websites like CNBC and Seeking Alpha), who track every cultural, corporate, programming, and financial move of The Walt Disney Company, previously one of America’s most iconic and trusted companies. Note: I used the past tense in describing The Walt Disney Company. It is no longer one of America’s most trusted brands, and it’s about to lose its iconic status.

How did this happen?

Commentary: The Destructive Generation Proves America’s Weakest Link

June 4, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

Governor Ronald Reagan, in his 1967 inaugural address, famously remarked, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.”

Reagan today might have expanded on his theme by declaring that civilization itself is both fragile and can lost by a generation that recklessly spends its inheritance while neither appreciating nor replenishing it—if not ridiculing those who sacrificed so much to provide it.

Lawmakers Press Investigation into DEI Agenda at the Pentagon

May 22, 2024May 21, 2024 The Center Square

Rep. Glenn Grotham with Rep Jim Banks (composite image)

A coalition of lawmakers is pushing forward the ongoing investigation into just how much taxpayer money Pentagon officials are taking away from national defense and putting toward diversity, equity and inclusivity initiatives.

The Pentagon has been under increasing scrutiny for its focus on DEI, even as the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas wars continue.

Commentary: Free Markets are Necessary But Not Sufficient

May 5, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

For most of our lifetimes, classically liberal economics so dominated the Right that nobody wondered if conservatives were abandoning free markets. In recent years, though, a new generation of conservative thinkers—more traditionalist, populist, or nationalist than libertarian—has challenged the utility and even the morality of laissez faire economic policy.

We welcome their questions and critiques, as they have compelled American conservatives to have a long overdue conversation about the market, the family, and the state. But the blunt truth is the movement cannot abandon free markets. The moral and practical case for free enterprise is as necessary today as it was when Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher used it to rescue their nations’ economies and win the Cold War.

Commentary: Republicans Should Stop Complaining About Their Opportunities and Take Advantage of Biden’s Failures

May 2, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

After I offered a perfectly accurate negative summation of current market/industry conditions when speaking on a business venture I can’t yet discuss (but that will be quite relevant indeed to the interests of our readers), I received an admonishment from my business partner: “Stop complaining about your opportunities!” It’s an even more accurate response than mine.

All too often we spend our time grousing about the state of the world, and yet, the worse things get, the greater the opportunity grows to take control and make them better.

Commentary: The Teachers’ Unions Are More Political than Ever

April 18, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

In the past, teachers’ unions concentrated on fighting to keep all teachers employed—competent or otherwise—laying off teachers by seniority when necessary and soaking taxpayers every chance they could. While those activities are still part of their mission, they have, over time, increasingly delved into the political/social realm, promoting Black Lives Matter, Critical Race Theory, DEI, class warfare, gender-bending, etc. And their current level of engagement is staggering.

Americans for Fair Treatment, a national nonprofit organization that educates public employees about their rights in a unionized workplace, recently released a report detailing the National Education Association’s (NEA) financial filings from Sept. 1, 2022, through Aug. 31, 2023.

Commentary: DEI Cronyism and Woke Grifters

April 12, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

When ideology replaces meritocracy or provides immunity from the consequences of illegal behavior, systemic mediocrity follows.

Under toxic National Socialism, Stalinism, and Maoism, millions of cronies and grifters mouthed party lines in hopes that their approved ideology would allow them to advance their careers and excuse their lawbreaking.

Commentary: Is ‘The Great Illusion’ in Ruins?

April 9, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

In 2021, Joe Biden was elected after a bitterly fought campaign that deposed the incumbent Donald Trump. Democrats eventually captured, for a time, both the House and Senate, ensuring the most left-wing government in modern American history.

Americans were then set to witness a great experiment. For the first time in their lives, a truly radical socialist program would supposedly fundamentally transform the way America dealt with the border, immigration, the economy, race relations, foreign policy, energy, law enforcement, crime, education, and social questions such as religion, gender, abortion, and schooling.

Company That Operated and Staffed Ship That Destroyed Baltimore Bridge was Heavily Focused on DEI

March 29, 2024 Peter D'Abrosca

The company in charge of operating and staffing the doomed vessel that destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge in a major crash earlier this week was heavily focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

The Dali, the 948-foot vessel was managed by the Singapore-based Synergy Marine Group.

Commentary: Will DEI End America or America End DEI?

March 26, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

At the nexus of most of America’s current crises, the diversity/equity/inclusion dogma can be found. The southern border has been destroyed because the Democratic Party wanted the poor of the southern hemisphere to be counted in the census, to vote if possible in poorly audited mail-in elections, and to build upon constituencies that demand government help. Opposition to such cynicism and the de facto destruction of enforcement of U.S. immigration law is written off as “racism,” “nativism,” and “xenophobia.”

The military is short more than 40,000 soldiers. The Pentagon may fault youth gangs, drug use, or a tight labor market. But the real shortfall is mostly due inordinately to reluctant white males who have been smeared by some of the military elite as suspected “white supremacists,” despite dying at twice their demographics in Iraq and Afghanistan. And they are now passing on joining up despite their families’ often multigenerational combat service.

Commentary: Elon Musk is Right, We Are in a Fight to the Death for Free Speech

March 26, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

Elon Musk on March 21 in a post on the X platform outlined what he called “centrist” positions on issues like securing the border, protecting American cities, reducing federal spending, ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) reverse discrimination policies, ending youth transgender surgeries and protecting freedom of speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution, saying these are not “right-wing” positions.

Musk wrote, “This is a battle to the death with the anti-civilizational woke mind virus. My positions are centrist: … Secure borders … Safe & clean cities … Don’t bankrupt America with spending … Racism against any race is wrong … No sterilization below age of consent … Is this right-wing?” In a second post in the thread, he added, “And, although it shouldn’t need to said, I believe in the Constitution and freedom of speech.”

Proposal would Halt Taxpayer Money to Medical Schools Promoting Racial Bias

March 21, 2024March 20, 2024 The Center Square

Reps Greg Murphy, Brad Wenstrup, and Burgess Owens (composite image)

Educating from the podium and advocating for the inclusion of all, congressmen led by North Carolina’s Dr. Greg Murphy and Ohio’s Dr. Brad Wenstrup on Tuesday introduced legislation that would halt taxpayer money from going to medical schools promoting racial bias.

Multiple speakers, both Black and white and at least one saying she’s neither Republican nor Democrat, drove home the message directly and indirectly that health care is about the patients and their outcomes. Collectively, they explained how the best care comes from the best in education, that all can access it, and the promotion of “critical race theory-based woke philosophy based on DEI” will put Americans’ lives at risk.

Commentary: America’s Priorities Need to Change in Order to Protect Its Citizens

March 15, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

The horrific murder of Laken Riley by a repeated felony offender and illegal alien Jose Ibarra, 26, a Venezuelan citizen, was preventable—had federal immigration laws simply been enforced by the Biden administration.

When called out in his recent State of the Union address, President Biden referenced the deceased Ms. Riley. But Biden misidentified her as “Lincoln Riley”—the USC football coach!

Commentary: Colleges Embrace ‘Deficit Framing’ to Justify Students’ Unpreparedness

March 13, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

It is an open secret among college professors and university administrators that college students aren’t what they used to be.

They struggle with lengthy reading assignments and basic vocabulary. They don’t know rudimentary algebra. They can’t add or subtract fractions. They complain that deadlines, hard exams, and required attendance are impediments to their success.

Yale University Employs Nearly one Administrator per Undergrad

March 4, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

Yale University employs more than three administrators and support staff for every four undergraduate students – roughly one administrator per undergrad, according to a College Fix analysis.

Over the last decade, Yale added 631 administrators and support staff to its payroll, according to data provided by administrators to the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

As the university embraced new DEI efforts, the number of administrators and support staff increased by 13 percent, from 4,942 to 5,573, between 2013-14 and 2021-22, the analysis found.

Bill Ackman on Washington Post Hit Piece: ‘The Public Has Been Again Misled’

February 11, 2024 Michael Patrick Leahy

Bill Ackman, the highly successful investor and Harvard graduate whose criticism of Claudine Gay’s history of plagiarism led to her resignation as President of Harvard University, published a lengthy tweet on his X account Saturday evening responding to an article about him published by The Washington Post earlier in the day, “How a liberal billionaire became America’s leading anti-DEI crusader.”

Commentary: DEI Destroys Excellence, Military Cohesion at Service Academies

January 19, 2024 RealClearWire

Applicants who self-identified as a member of a race the Academy wished to privilege—at the time I was on the Admissions Board it was African American, Hispanic, and Native American—were briefed separately to the committee not by a white member but by a minority Navy lieutenant. Briefings (a minute and forty seconds per applicant, no more) ran through a number of factors quite quickly and offered a recommendation that we had been told was appropriate: “qualified” for USNA if grades A/B for white applicants (but not minorities, who needed only C grades), 600 score in each part of the SAT for white applicants (but about 550 for minorities who come to USNA without remediation), and Whole Person Multiple (points given for grades/tests, school leadership positions, and sports) of at least 55,000 for whites, no bottom for minorities.

FAA Pushes to Hire People with ‘Severe Intellectual, Psychiatric’ Disabilities in the Name of Diversity

January 17, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

In a new statement, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that it intends to expand its push for diversity hires by hiring people who suffer from “severe intellectual” disabilities.

As reported by Fox News, the FAA’s website clearly states its intentions on the page for a hiring initiative focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. The site says that “targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the Federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring.”

Johns Hopkins Medicine Backpedals on ‘Privilege’ List, Says Email ‘Contradicts’ Values

January 14, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

Johns Hopkins Medicine walked back an internal email Thursday that accused straight white men of having unearned “privilege,” a spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Johns Hopkins Medicine sent out an email in January saying that multiple groups of people, including Christians and males, have privileges that “favor members of dominant groups.” The email was walked back by a spokesperson who said the list “contradicts” Johns Hopkins’ “values,” and was also walked back in an email by the chief diversity officer of the organization, according to a post on X, formerly Twitter.

University of Michigan Spending on ‘Diversity’ Grew 66 Percent in One Year

January 10, 2024January 9, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

The University of Michigan’s (UM) spending on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) increased about 66% from the 2022-2023 school year, according to an analysis by Mark Perry, a senior fellow at Do No Harm.

The school’s DEI payroll for the 2022-2023 school year came in at $18 million, but increased to over $30 million for the 2023-2024 academic year, according to Perry’s analysis. UM’s DEI department had 132 full-time diversity employees in the 2022-2023 school year and now has over 300.

Commentary: Educational Collapse and the Definition of Truth

January 7, 2024 Michigan Star Staff

It’s no secret that America’s students are struggling. The latest Nation’s Report Cards have not been flattering, with average scores in both math and reading declining over recent years.

It’s also no secret that pandemic restrictions have only exacerbated the learning decline in the U.S. However, scores have been falling since before the pandemic, signaling that there are more systemic problems holding back young people. In fact, this educational decline comes from a deeper philosophical brokenness about the notion of truth itself.

Commentary: The Battle for Higher Education

December 30, 2023 RealClearWire

Higher education is making news these days. In Congressional testimony, the Presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn couldn’t tell whether calling for the genocide of the Jews constituted harassment without knowing the context. The effects of their testimony reverberate.

Days later, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) issued a lengthy report condemning “Political Interference and Academic Freedom in Florida’s Public Higher Education System.” Prominently featured was a detailed complaint about New College of Florida, where I serve as admissions director.

Commentary: A Glaring Sign of Rot Within the CIA

December 26, 2023 Michigan Star Staff

In his powerful new book, Neutering the CIA: Why Us Intelligence Versus Trump Has Long-term Consequences, former CIA analyst John Gentry discusses how the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) agenda has harmed national security by elevating the goals of left-wing identity politics as paramount in the selection and promotion of officers. For example, late last month, the Financial Times revealed that a CIA officer posted pro-Palestinian images on her Facebook page and a selfie photo with the caption “Free Palestine.”

The agency officer, later identified as Amy McFadden, reportedly posted at least one of these images to the Internet after the horrific October 7, Hamas attack on Israel in which more than 1,300 Jews were killed by Hamas terrorists, many of them raped and mutilated, and more than 250 taken hostage.

Commentary: A Glaring Sign of Rot Within the CIA

December 26, 2023 Michigan Star Staff