Diversity is Now a Path to Wealth in Academia

Diversity is Now a Path to Wealth in Academia

As I’ve said repeatedly, we’re rapidly approaching a point where a commitment to diversity will be more important than academic credentials.

Robert Weissberg writes at Minding the Campus:

Diversity Studies: Your Path to a 6-Figure Salary

Universities face a serious dilemma in their quest for diversity and inclusion. Alas, this noble intention has a cost: degrees in Black studies, Women’s Studies, Gender Studies, and similar identity group majors hardly put much bread on the table.

To be blunt, the well-intentioned, socially responsible university is guilty of fraud when it tells its socially-minded recruits that a degree in a “gut” major is the pathway to success. The problem is thus finding a field of study that simultaneously helps students earn a degree and offers a genuine economic pay-off.

Here’s the solution: “Diversity Studies,” a major that will provide both the diploma and a well-paid career.

This solution arrived as a Eureka moment when I read how the University of Michigan employed some 93 full-time staff charged with promoting diversity. All had high sounding titles–diversity administrator, directors of diversity, vice-provosts, Deans, investigators, executive assistants, and consultants.

More than a quarter of these functionaries earned more than $100,000 plus generous fringe benefits worth about 32.5% of salary. Indeed, salaries at the top here far exceed salaries of well-paid distinguished professors. Robert Sellers, Vice Provost for Equity and Inclusion & Chief Diversity Officer, takes home $396,550; David Brown, Michigan’s Associate Dean Office of Health Equity & Inclusion earned some $220,000.

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