Chicago           Since Trump returned to office, a key administrative priority has been eliminating programs that trumped diversity, equity, and inclusion, more commonly known by the abbreviation, DEI.  They have had much success.  There have been notable exceptions, but most corporations have bent the knee and kissed the ring, not surprisingly since the vast majority were still run by what Trumpers would see as normal Americans, i.e. white men.  Within the government itself they have used their whip hand to decimate programs in the federal service and the military.  There’s no way to argue that these actions, cherished by the far-right and feeding the paranoia of the “replacement theory” have been other than atavistic and turned the clock back years.

Universities, especially in the top tier of elite institutions and the Ivy League, have been aggressively targeted.  Many of them also caved like cheap suits.  Some like, Harvard, have sued and won, though are still likely to pay the price.

There may be a silver lining in this cloudy picture within many universities.  Reading the Economist recently on a plane, I found that many are simply changing their spots and continuing to run forward.  George Washington University in Washington, DC, replaced “its Office for Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement with an Office of Community, Culture and Inclusion…the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign renamed its Office for DEI to the Office for Access, Civil Rights and Community.”  The Economist “suggests that, for all the political noise, the crackdown’s impact so far has been limited.”  In their survey they found that most have adopted this third route by keeping the staff, changing the names, and maintaining much of the mission.  They back up this finding with payroll records from a number of universities that indicate even if some of the funding for programs decline, “the decline was modest, even at institutions that swiftly eliminated their DEI offices.” They back up these conclusions looking at giant universities like Ohio State and the University of Texas.  If true, this is hopeful news.

Facts on the ground are likely to be different from the air war.  Crime figures are down across urban America, but that hasn’t stopped conservatives from claiming it’s out of control and trying to force blue city and state mayors and governors to wear the blooding shirt.  DEI has been a good whipping boy for the right and slippery stealth strategies may allow survival now, but not assure a safe harbor from more attacks in the future.

What may save the programs in reality may be the desperate need for most higher educational institutions for more students as that cohort of our population continues to decline.  With a shrinking pool of students, all colleges and universities are going to have to broaden and deeper their recruiting to fill the seats in their classrooms and pay their bills.  They won’t call that DEI, but survival of the fittest, but it will still add up to the same whether conservatives like it or not.