More than 200 colleges and universities in the U.S. have diversity, equity and inclusion offices, even as several academic institutions have taken steps to dial back the prevalence of DEI initiatives on campus, a new study has revealed.
The advocacy group Parents Defending Education released a report last Wednesday documenting the prevalence of DEI offices on college campuses throughout the U.S. It found that 245 colleges and universities have school-wide DEI offices while nearly 200 additional DEI offices exist at schools within colleges and universities.
Educational institutions with DEI offices extend across 46 of the 50 states. The only states where Parents Defending Education did not find colleges or universities with DEI offices were Alabama, Hawaii, Idaho and Wyoming.
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The report specifically highlighted schools that have removed DEI webpages: The University of Alaska Anchorage, Northwestern University and its Pritzker School of Law in Illinois, the Tulane University School of Medicine in Louisiana, McDaniel College in Maryland, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, North Carolina State University, Maywood University in Pennsylvania, the College of Charleston in South Carolina and Augustana University in South Dakota.
The report listed additional schools within particular colleges and universities that have removed DEI webpages even as the institutions as a whole have not completely abandoned the concept: The University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, the University of Louisville College of Education and Human Development in Kentucky, the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee and the Baylor College of Medicine in Texas.
Meanwhile, the University of Michigan has removed its DEI webpage even as its Departments of Psychology, Engineering and Law still have DEI offices or webpages. Similarly, the University of Virginia’s Departments of Student Affairs and Engineering, as well as the School of Education and Human Development and School of Medicine, still have DEI offices even as the institution as a whole has removed its DEI webpage.
West Virginia University no longer has a DEI division, but its Department of Health Sciences has a diversity webpage and its Honors College has a DEI webpage. While most colleges on the list are state schools, several prominent religious institutions have at least one DEI webpage.
Religious colleges highlighted on the list include: Loyola Marymount University in California, St. Mary’s College in California, Trinity College in Connecticut, Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Dominican University in Illinois, Loyola University Chicago, the University of Notre Dame, St. Mary’s College in Indiana, Loyola University Maryland, College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, St. Catherine University in Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
Additional religious colleges with at least one DEI webpage include: Nebraska Wesleyan University, St. Peter’s University in New Jersey, St. John’s University in New York, St. Lawrence University in New York, St. Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania, Villanova University in Pennsylvania, Presbyterian College in South Carolina and Brigham Young University in Utah.
Several prominent Ivy League schools and prestigious private universities are also included on the list: Stanford University in California, Yale University in Connecticut, Harvard University in Massachusetts, Princeton University in New Jersey, Columbia University in New York, Cornell University in New York, Duke University in North Carolina and Brown University in Rhode Island.
The publication of the report comes as the Trump administration has made cracking down on DEI a top priority. In February, the U.S. Department of Education terminated over $600 million in contracts to teacher preparation programs that advanced “inappropriate and unnecessary topics,” including DEI. The Trump administration has given states a deadline of April 24 to restrict DEI practices in schools or risk losing federal funding.
Just last week, Harvard University found itself subject to a $2.2 billion funding freeze in multi-year grants and a $60 million funding freeze in multi-year contracts for failing to comply with the Trump administration’s demands to abolish DEI programs on campus.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
