It has gotten to the point where we are seeing this same story play out once or twice a week. It looks like DEI is on its way out.
The Omaha World-Herald reports:
University of Nebraska-Lincoln to close Office of Diversity and InclusionThe University of Nebraska-Lincoln will dissolve its Office of Diversity and Inclusion and eliminate the vice chancellor position that directed its efforts, administrators said Tuesday.UNL Chancellor Rodney Bennett said the change, which was announced to students, faculty, and staff in an email, comes as part of a broader restructuring of the executive leadership team for the state’s largest public university campus.”I fully grasp the weight of this decision and its implications,” Bennett wrote, “but a centralized approach to this work is no longer right for our institution.”The change means the position currently held by Marco Barker, UNL’s first and only vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion, will be eliminated at the end of the calendar year. Barker’s total salary and benefits is nearly $320,000.The $750,000 annual budget of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which was previously subjected to budget cuts implemented last year, also will be reabsorbed into UNL. The five staff members who worked in the office will be allowed to apply for vacant positions across campus, administrators said.In an interview with the Lincoln Journal Star, Bennett said the nationwide trend that started 10 to 15 years ago of colleges and universities establishing offices of diversity and inclusion and hiring administrators to lead them has shifted.”I think during that period, perhaps, a goal was met and those offices have served the campuses well,” said Bennett, who is entering his second year leading UNL. “But there certainly has been a shift.”Offices focused on diversity, equity and inclusion — commonly referred to as DEI — have been shuttered at public and private universities across the country in recent years, as their efforts have come under fire from lawmakers in conservative states.
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