DEI at Michigan--NYT article

[Anonymous]

DEI is just a grift. And antithetical to the mission of a university. Good luck to Michigan trying to shed this bureaucratic infiltration.

[Anonymous]

Agree but the point of this article is that these expensive DEI programs are not it. I personally HATE these types of programs- and honestly I feel they primarily benefit the people who run them- but I very much support diversity. I just don’t think this is the way to get there.

This. Intervention should be aimed at K8. The earlier the intervention, the better. College should be, primarily, a meritocracy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This was a stunning indictment of Michigan. From the NY Times, of all places.

Combined with the already low stats of its students (more than 25% have below a 1350 and only 50% bother to submit an SAT score), Michigan's reputation is sinking further.

You missed that part where 25% are above 1530. But who cares. Only on this hellsite do grown adults obsess over SAT scores this much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Agree but the point of this article is that these expensive DEI programs are not it. I personally HATE these types of programs- and honestly I feel they primarily benefit the people who run them- but I very much support diversity. I just don’t think this is the way to get there.

This. Intervention should be aimed at K8. The earlier the intervention, the better. College should be, primarily, a meritocracy.

It’s never too late for people to learn about being inclusive. Definitely some DCUM posters would be benefit from some DEI awareness.

[Anonymous]

Inclusion is different. Sustainable change, impacting poverty by helping someone attain better opportunities in the workplace should start early. The rest in virtue signaling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has there been any reaction from Michigan to the article?

I suspect it will be something along the lines of - This is a prime example of a poor product resulting from the lack of inclusion of a diverse team of experts. It is the opinion of one highly biased individual who lacks an appropriate understanding of antiracist pedagogy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was a stunning indictment of Michigan. From the NY Times, of all places.

Combined with the already low stats of its students (more than 25% have below a 1350 and only 50% bother to submit an SAT score), Michigan's reputation is sinking further.

Oh you again. You're just a Michigan hater. I think of you as "below 1350 troll". You seem to think SATs are the ultimate measure of human worth. And you never have any other arguments beyond banging on about the SAT distribution.

I don't mind the critical article. It makes some valid points. But quick math suggests $250M's not that large a fraction of Michigan tuition revenue over the multi-year period of time it was likely spent. 2023 tuition revenue alone was $1.6B. Just one year.

And based on that article, that effort, regardless of how you feel about it, was partly an employer/employee relations initiative as well. So the spending also should be compared to total revenues and initiatives beyond just educating students (running a medical center, etc.) Which are more in the magnitude of $10B a year based on Googling quickly. So maybe the $250 mil is out of a denominator in the magnitude of $100B-ish or more.

I prefer to associate with organizations that try to improve society even if they stumble. So, I think it's fair to take the criticism and move on. Articles like that always cherrypick quotes from compelling people. That's how the rhetorical points get made. And that's o.k. There's no special relationship that I know about between the New York Times ("of all places") and Michigan that would make critical reporting unexpected.

Our society has a lot of problems. No surprise that a university can't fix them all. But doing nothing and spending nothing, or spending on things outside the University's mission (like pre-school) doesn't seem very enlightened.

Ha +1, This person loves to trot out Michigan’s SAT range. Kills them it is consistently ranked among top universities on every single list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Agree but the point of this article is that these expensive DEI programs are not it. I personally HATE these types of programs- and honestly I feel they primarily benefit the people who run them- but I very much support diversity. I just don’t think this is the way to get there.

This. Intervention should be aimed at K8. The earlier the intervention, the better. College should be, primarily, a meritocracy.

It’s never too late for people to learn about being inclusive. Definitely some DCUM posters would be benefit from some DEI awareness.

+100 The irony of bashing DEI programs while not fully understanding the issues is profound.

[Anonymous]

I Do not Endorse It since it is discriminatory in practice especially against Asians.

[Anonymous]

Some cited a professor who, some years earlier, had two students with the last name Xu — it sounds like "shoe" - who sat next to each other in class; he had once referred to them as "left Xu" and "right Xu."

***
Come on, that’s pretty funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s sad because it seems like the effect of it has been to promote blame and division. Done properly, it’s about promoting understanding and growth. The professor asking for students to let him know if he was accidentally offending them was showing his willingness to grow and learn — the student who filed a complaint was unreasonable. I do wonder, though. if they overstate the problem by focusing on the most extreme crazies. Like if you polled that professors class, would 99 students say “gee, I really appreciated him saying that…”?
It’s hard to say. Part of the problem here is that over the past 10 years, the country has become much more divided and tribalist (in part due to people like Trump and Russian troll farms who foment these divisions very explicitly). So it’s hard to conclude that this is the result of the UM DEI program, unless we know whether polls of students nationwide would show the same increased sense of embattlement.

Are you the last reasonable person in Washington?

[Anonymous]

That is pretty funny.

[Anonymous]

Okay so takeaway is:

Michigan = bad
Don't let your kids apply to it.




Please

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That is pretty funny.

But seriously, would it be "racist" if it were "Left Susie and Right Susie" or "Left John and Right John"? Of course not. The prof was trying to get through the day. This is all insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Okay so takeaway is:

Michigan = bad
Don't let your kids apply to it.




Please

Right? As a Michigan parent, this is not going to matter. Michigan is still (like all the other top schools) going to be a huge prize. My kid is having the time of his life and getting a great education. People are always thrilled for him that he got in and is there. This article isn't changing anything.