Small: OU, OSU have more ‘diversity’ staff than history faculty

OCPA President Jonathan Small OU, OSU have more ‘diversity’ staff than history faculty By Jonathan Small  New departments, centers, and programs are popping up left and right on college campuses across the country. Their stated focus? To promote “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) on campus.  Unfortunately, those benign-sounding words don’t necessarily mean what you think they mean.  Instead, DEI is all about identity politics, equality of outcomes (with reparations, if necessary), and attacks on freedom of speech and other principles foundational to the American way of life. At the University of Oklahoma there is a specific office devoted to DEI efforts. Oklahoma State University likewise has a division dedicated to “institutional diversity.” And more and more DEI-focused programs means more and more diversity bureaucrats needed to run them.  A new study from The Heritage Foundation examined how many DEI staff were employed at 65 major universities across the United States. They found most universities’ DEI staff outnumbered the schools’ history faculties. And Oklahoma was no exception.  The Heritage Foundation scholars found that OU and OSU combined employ 61 DEI staff members. (In reality, the study says, this is a very conservative count and is in fact “an undercount of the true extent of DEI activities at universities.”) Meanwhile, the combined history faculty count at OU and OSU is 50. The folks in executive positions leading DEI programs at these schools both take home hefty six-figure paychecks for their efforts. The OU bureaucrat who oversees the school’s “diversity” efforts receives $230,000 while OSU chief diversity official is paid $200,299. Read more » by Jamison Faught - August 07, 2021 at 08:30AM

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