The High Costs Of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion At Illinois Ivy League Universities
By Nick Bonitti via WirePoints.org
Several Ivy League schools have been put under a national microscope recently for applying the right to free speech inconsistently. These universities are giving some groups unwavering protection to protest, while shutting down other groups altogether. These inconsistencies have one common denominator: Higher education’s unwavering devotion to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
DEI’s focus on race, gender and is credited for much of the divisiveness on college campuses these days and Illinois’ university system is not immune. Look no further than the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) where Communication 9 goes as far as to tie faculty performance evaluations to professors’ commitment to DEI. We outlined problems with the university’s initiative here.
But what also deserves attention are the growing DEI bureaucracies and the significant financial costs associated with them. Illinois’ universities are building out big teams led by executives with big pay, the highest among them Sean Garrick, Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). His total compensation in 2023 is reported at $352,000, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
But he’s just the tip of the DEIceberg.
Top heavy DEI roles come at a big cost.
In a state with the most units of local government in the country, it should be no surprise that Illinois’ higher education system is fragmented. Each university has its own DEI bureaucracy and, within each bureaucracy, its own flavor of DEI leadership.
The result is an administrative hodgepodge that can make it difficult to track how pervasive DEI is embedded in each institution. Chief Executives, Chancellors, Vice Chancellors, Associate Vice Chancellors – the titles for DEI executives are nearly as diverse as the department themselves. And their total compensation is anywhere from Doris Houston’s $155,000 at Illinois State University to Garrick’s $352,000.
Keep in mind the names in the table below are only the top officials listed in the Illinois Higher Board of Education’s salary database. There are many, many more lower-level functionaries we’ll have to work to identify in future reporting.
Below we break down some of the bureaucracies within the entire system. The list is not meant to be comprehensive because universities are still not consistent with their reporting, nomenclature or role definitions.
University of Illinois System: In addition to Garrick, UIUC also has an Associate Vice Chancellor for Access and Equity and an Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity.
Meanwhile, University of Illinois at Chicago has a Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Engagement who makes $237,000 and also has an Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity. All told, there are over a dozen director-level DEI staff under the UofI umbrella.
DEI is not just a Human Resources thing either. UIC also has an Office of Procurement Diversity.
Southern Illinois University: Under the System Office, which oversees numerous locations under the SIU umbrella, Sheila L. Caldwell is paid nearly $250,000 as the Vice President for Anti-racism, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer. Meanwhile, SIU-Carbondale has a Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and SIU-School of Medicine has an Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
Northern Illinois University: Vernese E. Edghill-Walden was being paid nearly $250,000 to serve as the Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Office. Past tense because she recently accepted a position at Bucknell University.
Eastern Illinois University recently hired their inaugural Executive Director & Senior Diversity and Inclusion Officer, whose duties begin in 2024.
Governors State University hired their first Chief Diversity Officer back in 2021. That person left GSU the following year.
Illinois State University has Doris Houston, a Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer.
Western Illinois University has an Office of Justice, Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (JIDE) with an interim director.
Northeastern Illinois University has an Executive Director of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).
Chicago State University, a school whose current enrollment is 77% African American, seemingly has no formal DEI department at this time.
* * *
The veil is slowly lifting on every college campus. What lies underneath is a vast network of largesse and bureaucracy that we are only beginning to unearth.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- In the name of equity, Chicago looks to close schools with top-performing black, Hispanic students
- RIP Norman Lear. Fifty years ago he scorned Chicago Public Schools for its failures. His criticisms still matter today.
- Universities better get ahead of surging anti-woke backlash. The University of Illinois should go first.
__________
RELATED
Rufo Exposes Claudine Gay’s DEI Empire
**********
(TLB) published this article by Nick Bonitti via WirePoints.org as posted at ZH
Header featured image (edited) credit: DEI on money/via Tyler Durden at ZH
Emphasis added by (TLB)
••••
••••
Stay tuned to …
••••
The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)
••••
Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.
••••
Disclaimer: TLB websites contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of “fair use” in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, health, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than “fair use” you must request permission from the copyright owner.
••••
Disclaimer: The information and opinions shared are for informational purposes only including, but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material are not intended as medical advice or instruction. Nothing mentioned is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Leave a Reply