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March 1st, 2022 
Awake Goy 
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An initiative by the University of Michigan to hire 20 new “anti-racism” faculty has moved into the third round of hiring, according to a recent statement from the school.
“The Anti-Racism Faculty Hiring Initiative, one of the Office of the Provost’s programs and activities to address systemic racism, will begin its third round of proposal submission and review in March,” the Feb. 11 announcement stated.
In 2021, the Michigan provost announced the school would be hiring 20 new tenured or tenure-track faculty members with scholarly expertise in racial inequality and structural racism to schools and colleges across campus.
A spokesman for the school declined to provide The College Fix with an estimate of the cost of the new hires.
According to a recent study of 65 universities by the Heritage Institute, Michigan has “by far the largest” number of staff whose jobs are creating and advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives. The study found 163 employees at Michigan whose primary role was to advance DEI on campus.
Later, an independent National Review analysis found 167 such employees, up from 40 in 2002.
“Between 2002 and 2014, U-M averaged 67 DEI staffers per year,” National Review found. “Since 2015, it’s been 129, almost double, and rising.”
According to the school, all “cluster initiative positions” will be co-funded by the provost and participating departments. For new hires, the provost will provide 50 percent of base salary as well as 50 percent of “start-up costs up to a predetermined level.”
Other positions may be created and funded by the departments themselves, without aid from the provost. According to the school’s budget numbers, the provost’s 2022 proposed budget is $42.3 million.
“Using scholarship and research to illuminate and address societal challenges is an important part of the university’s mission,” said Provost Susan Collins in a statement announcing the new initiative. “The university’s strong record of work on race and racism will be augmented and extended by hiring these eight new faculty members in the critical areas of health care and the use of technology.”
Additionally, the school committed $260,000 in October 2020 for “combating racism” projects, such as “Virulent Hate: Anti-Asian Racism and Resistance During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” “Democracy’s Denominator: How Citizenship-Based Redistricting Impacts Racial Minority Voters,” and “Beyond Rhetoric: Confronting and Combating Racism in Genesee County, Michigan.” [… Read the rest]
This article originally appeared on The College Fix.
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