The University of Iowa will spend $2.8 million on diversity programming in 2019 alone, including $1.95 million to pay the salaries of 32 diversity staffers.
According to a report from The College Fix, the University of Iowa is set to spend nearly $3 million on diversity, equity, and inclusion in 2019. According to the university’s diversity budget, the vast majority, $1.95 million to be exact, of the budget will go to salaries for the 32 employees that work in the university’s diversity and inclusion office.
A spokesperson for the diversity office told The College Fix that the budget is used to host diversity-related events for students. “In the most recent events, our office partnered with the UI Diversity Councils to host a welcome reception at the beginning of the academic year and with the Diversity Councils and the Office of the Provost for a spring mixer. The budget for this event pays for space and food,” the spokesperson said.
Breitbart News reported in September 2018 that the Ohio State University spends $7.3 million annually on “diversity.” The university’s diversity office features 88 employees. James Moore III, the Vice Provost in the Office of Diversity & Inclusion earns $197,272 annually.
Breitbart News has written about the growth of diversity offices on college campuses over the past few years. Take, for example, the University of Michigan — whose diversity office has an $11 million payroll for its 100 employees. The newly appointed Vice President of Diversity at Ohio University will make $200,000 per year. Despite staffing dozens of employees, it remains unclear what campus diversity offices contribute to university life.
Mark J. Perry, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, argues that the unnecessary and sudden expansion of diversity offices may be contributing to the dramatic rise in the cost of college tuition.
“While some diversity staff are probably necessary to enforce federal legislation like Title IX, there are also concerns that many diversity employees are part of an administrative expansion that might be unnecessary and is a major contributing factor to the increasing cost of college, which has major life-long implications for the students who are now graduating with average student loan debt of $37,000 and average monthly payments of nearly $400 for ten years,” Perry said.
Story cited here.
