Black Students at University of Michigan Criticize DEI Initiatives as Ineffective
Black students at the University of Michigan have dismissed the university’s extensive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, calling them a failure.
“D.E.I. at Michigan is rooted in a struggle for racial integration that began more than a half-century ago, but many Black students today regard the school’s expansive program as a well-meaning failure,” a recent article from the New York Times said.
New York Times Magazine columnist Nicholas Confessore reported that black students at the school are largely disengaged from DEI efforts. Princess-J’Maria Mboup, the speaker of the Black Student Union on campus, told Confessore, “the students that are most affected by D.E.I. — meaning marginalized communities — are invested in the work, but not in D.E.I. itself.” Mboup criticized the university’s DEI efforts as “superficial,” adding that they reflect a “general discomfort with naming Blackness explicitly.”
Confessore highlighted that while the University of Michigan has a growing population of Hispanic, Asian, and first-generation students, black students make up only 5 percent of the student body, despite being 14 percent of the state’s population. However, after speaking with students of various backgrounds, Confessore noted, “no one expressed any particular enthusiasm for Michigan’s DEI initiative.”
“Where some found it shallow, others found it stifling. They rolled their eyes at the profusion of course offerings that revolve around identity and oppression, the D.E.I.-themed emails they frequently received but rarely read,” he wrote.
Confessore also pointed to data from the university itself that suggests the campus has become less inclusive despite efforts to promote diversity and equity. A 2022 survey revealed that both students and faculty reported a less positive campus climate and a diminished sense of belonging compared to when the DEI program first launched.
“Students were less likely to interact with people of a different race or religion or with different politics — the exact kind of engagement D.E.I. programs, in theory, are meant to foster,” Confessore explained.
Mark Bernstein, a member of the university’s Board of Regents, also criticized the DEI initiatives, saying, “D.E.I. here is absolutely well-intentioned, extremely thoughtful in its conception and design. But it’s so virtuous that it’s escaped accountability in a lot of ways.”
Confessore concluded that many everyday campus complaints and academic disagreements are now framed as issues of inclusion and harm, prompting administrative intervention. However, he noted, “On a campus consumed with institutional self-criticism, seemingly the only thing to avoid a true reckoning was D.E.I. itself.”
