University of Michigan vice provost for equity, inclusion and academic affairs Robert Sellers greets those in attendance at Mark Schlissel's annual Leadership Breakfast at the Michigan Union on Wednesday, October 5, 2016. Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News

ANN ARBOR, MI - Rob Sellers has heard the criticisms and he's seen the figures thrown around social media.

The University of Michigan is paying $10.6 million annually in salary and benefits to employ 82 diversity officers, including 76 on its Ann Arbor campus.

For that amount of money, more than 700 students could receive full in-state tuition at a time when the cost of college continues to rise, UM-Flint Professor of Finance and Business Economics Mark J. Perry has argued.

Perry has been a financial watchdog of sorts regarding UM's DEI staffing, highlighting his research on his personal website for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative public policy think tank. He's also successfully internally challenged UM faculty awards specified for minorities and women with Title IX complaint threats.

"... Once you move away from the academy/higher education, with its uniform leftist, progressive, liberal echo chamber, I think you find that mainstream Americans object to the diversity efforts that contribute to higher tuition and rising student loan debt that are contributing to the unsustainable 'higher education bubble,'" Perry said.

He argues "administrative bloat" is one of his chief concerns in highlighting UM's spending on diversity officers, presenting graphs showing dramatic increases in the number of employees with diversity titles. There were none on the Ann Arbor campus until 2003. The following year there were 15, increasing to 76 this fall.

The numbers are misleading and don’t take into account those employees have duties that go well beyond recruiting traditionally under-represented minorities, said Sellers, the university's first chief diversity officer.

That includes implementing teaching strategies that make the classroom experience better for all students.

"For example, in certain gateway courses in the sciences, if there is a lab that is taught in one particular way where competition is emphasized, you find significant differences in performance by gender - men do much better in those spaces," Sellers said.

"On the flip side, if the exact same material is taught in a way that doesn't emphasize competition, but emphasizes cooperation and collaboration, those gender and group differences go away. It's not that the men do (worse), it's that everyone does better."

It all begs the question: How does the UM campus community measure progress when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion since the university launched a five-year strategic plan in 2016?

The Ann Arbor News asked administrators, faculty, staff and students how they think UM is doing.

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The University of Michigan Has At Least 82 Full-Time Diversity Officers at a Total Annual Payroll Cost of $10.6M. That Would Support Full In-State Tuition for 708 Students. pic.twitter.com/hdvgCMaSAc — Mark J. Perry (@Mark_J_Perry) December 31, 2018

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Research provided by UM-Flint economics professor Mark J. Perry shows the rise in the number of UM "diversity officers" by title, according to salary reports. UM says those employees perform a number of other different functions outside of their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Coming at a cost/defending spending

UM President Mark Schlissel defended the number of diversity officers in a recent Detroit News editorial.

Around 80 percent of those with "diversity officer" titles existed before UM launched its strategic plan in October 2016, announcing an $85 million investment in new resources designed to help transform the campus culture.of the plan in 2016.

That means the remaining new roles created since then account for around $2.1 million of that total. Salaries count for around $8 million of that total, while the rest accounts for employee benefits.

"Some of these staff do work that is required by federal law, such as the professionals in our Office for Institutional Equity, who conduct investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct, age discrimination and gender bias, and protect civil rights," Schlissel wrote.

Salaries for those with diversity in their title range from Sellers, who earns $407,653 a year, to administrative assistants earning $42,000 a year.

It's hard to gauge exactly how much time each of the employees with diversity titles devote to DEI-related work, UM Public Affairs Representative Lauren Love said. Those decisions are often left up to each of the plan's 49 units.

Along with new staff, this money has funded ongoing scholarship opportunities for low-income students, in addition to construction of a new $10 million multicultural center that is expected to be completed later this year.

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Fiona Lee, associate dean of DEI and Professional Development in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, sees DEI initiatives having an impact on students in the College of LSA. Photo provided | University of Michigan

DEI in action

In her 23 years as a UM faculty member, Fiona Lee said one of the best parts is bringing together people with completely different life experiences.

Lee's work as an associate dean of DEI and Professional Development in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts has helped fulfill the needs of students who are financially disadvantaged.

"Our DEI strategic plan is focused on making sure all students, regardless of social identity, have the same opportunities to voice their views, share their experiences, participate in all the activities provided at UM, and access resources to help them succeed," Lee said.

DEI work in the college has included starting a program to provide new laptops to students whose family income is less than $65,000, which has helped 1,302 students. The college also started a program to fund passport applications for first-year, Pell grant-eligible students, to help fund their global study aspirations.

Of the nearly 2,200 action items listed for the plan, 92 percent have been enacted or are in progress, according to a DEI progress report released in October.

DEI efforts also have focused on inclusive teaching, Lee said, by creating dozens of workshops to help its 3,000 faculty and graduate student instructors.

This has been supported by a website to showcase effective inclusive teaching methods that have resonated with students and provided numerous grants to support faculty who want to develop new teaching practices.

The college also started a new Inclusive Campus Corps program, which is available to the more than 1,000 student workers and offers training on leadership, communication skills, conflict management, organizational change and other professional skills, Lee said.

The college continues to work on getting faculty, staff and its 19,673 students - by far the largest college at UM - engaged in and passionate about its DEI goals, Lee said.

"We need to do a better job of communicating the message that DEI is a priority for everyone, not just a few," Lee said.

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Jack Zellweger | The Ann Arbor News

Surveys say ...

One of the first big pieces of UM's DEI plan was to determine how faculty, staff and students experienced the campus and whether they found it welcoming to all.

Underrepresented minorities, especially African Americans, consistently reported having the least positive experiences compared to any other group on campus, according to the campus climate survey completed in November 2017.

Surveys made up of random samples of students, staff and faculty showed that 62 percent of undergraduate underrepresented minority students and 55 percent underrepresented minority faculty said they are satisfied with the campus climate, compared with 72 percent of the overall UM community.

"The campus was experienced very differently, depending on one's social identity, which wasn't a particular surprise," Sellers said.

First-generation students, on the other hand, were 127 percent more likely than other students to report feeling neutral, unsatisfied, or very unsatisfied with the campus climate.

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UM student Vidhya Aravind speaks during a demonstration inside the Rogel Ballroom to address racist incidents that had occurred on campus in the fall of 2017. Matt Weigand | The Ann Arbor News

A student's perspective

As both a UM student and staff member, Vidhya Aravind said she believes the structure of UM's DEI plan feels siloed and decentralized, spread out among 49 separate units.

It has been frustrating, Aravind said, when she and other transgender activists have demanded a re-hauling of the Comprehensive Gender Services Program, which helps transgender adults access medical care.

"It feels like activists keep demanding things, keep doing the unpaid work of creating policy, and keep getting ignored year after year," Aravind said. "Until these demands are honestly engaged with, DEI is a failure in my estimation."

UM's campus climate survey indicated LGBTQ+ students were 59 percent more likely than heterosexual students to report feeling neutral, unsatisfied or very unsatisfied with the campus climate.

Aravind and others helped graduate students earn compensation as DEI student staff assistants through tuition waivers, living stipends and union benefits for their work on the university's strategic plan.

She also worked within UM's School of Nursing to accomplish some faculty DEI training and event planning, but the DEI work there feels understaffed, and marginalized staff members are shouldering much of the burden, Aravind said.

"Because it's so decentralized, tracking is hard, working together as a collective is hard, engaging with people is hard, and activists have no idea where to turn to even give demands," Aravind said.

While there might be an uptick in the number of events the university hosts surrounding gender identity, material conditions haven't changed, Aravind said.

"Certainly, opportunity and campus participation should be equitable, but I would much rather DEI focus on acknowledging we have different needs and work to fill all of those needs," Aravind said.

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Comedian and political commentator Steven Crowder performs for an audience at Power Center for the Performing Arts, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2018 in Ann Arbor. Ben Allan Smith | The Ann Arbor News

Calling for 'intellectual diversity'

Perry argues that diversity efforts at UM seem to focus on gender and skin color diversity, but rarely address concerns about intellectual or political diversity.

Student groups like UM's chapter of Young Americans for Freedom have attempted to fill the perceived void Perry describes. The group has brought attention-grabbing speakers to campus who express conservative ideologies, like comedian Steven Crowder and political commentator Michael J. Knowles, with plans to bring Ben Shapiro to campus this semester.

Overall, UM's DEI climate survey showed approximately 21 percent of students reported experiencing at least one discriminatory event as a result of their political orientation over the previous year.

UM YAF President Jacob Chludzinski called on university administrators to continue ensuring the campus is a "marketplace of ideas" for all students.

"Our peers resort to name calling, assumptions, and falsehoods instead of partaking in a constructive conversation," he said. "It is imperative that the University of Michigan DEI Strategic Plan puts an equal emphasis on intellectual diversity and allows students of all beliefs to feel comfortable expressing their ideas."

Creating a more intellectually diverse campus climate goes beyond bringing in potentially controversial speakers, former UM Board of Regents member Andrew Richner said.

"I continue to be concerned about intellectual diversity and whether the university is a welcoming place for the expression of different viewpoints," Richner said in his farewell address to the board on Dec. 6. "... I think the university really needs to focus on fostering an environment for open and free discussion on important societal issues."

A group of UM students is trying to change that perception.

WeListen aims to bring students of all political sides together to discuss topics like gun control, free speech, abortion and immigration.

During the fall semester, it hosted a conference, inviting 100 students from UM's Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses to participate in group discussions. It featured a panel of speakers featuring Bill Kristol, founder and editor of The Weekly Standard, and Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress.

WeListen aims to change the perception that college students can't engage in conversation with those who have different opinions from them, UM student Evon Yao said.

"Instead of debating or trying to convince others why your view is right, we instead are encouraging students to find common ground despite our differences and gain a deeper understanding of the values that shape others' opinions," Yao said.

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Inside the numbers

In the last 10 years, UM has seen its enrollment numbers of under-represented minorities increase from 9.93 percent of the student body to 12.42 percent.

Initiatives like the Go Blue Guarantee, which offers all in-state students with a family income of up to $65,000 free tuition for four years, have made headlines the university hopes will attract more low-income and under-represented minority students.

The number of Go Blue Guarantee recipients eligible for free tuition this fall remained about the same as in the winter 2018 semester, at nearly 1,700 students, or 7 percent of UM's in-state undergraduate enrollment.

The Go Blue Guarantee is modeled after UM's HAIL scholarship program, which offers high-achieving, low-income high school students free tuition.

HAIL scholarship recipients were more than twice as likely to apply to UM and then enroll when compared to similar peers who qualified for the same financial aid in a different format, according to a working paper examining the program.

"Our unconditional, early commitment of four years of free tuition and fees assured students and their families that University of Michigan is within their reach," said UM Professor Susan Dynarski, lead author of the "Closing the Gap" working paper, which was released on Dec. 10, and has not yet been peer reviewed.

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Attracting new students

This fall, UM saw a 24-percent increase in applicants from families making $50,000 or less and a 6-percent increase in freshmen enrolled from families making $65,000 or less.

More than two-thirds of students offered the HAIL scholarship applied to UM, compared to 26 percent of similar students not presented with the free tuition offer, according to findings from the study. Twenty-eight percent of students offered the HAIL scholarship enrolled at UM, compared to 13 percent of similar students not included in the HAIL program.

Beyond the state's borders, Sellers said UM is expanding efforts to attract high-achieving students from urban areas across the country, including Chicago.

Overall, under-represented minorities made up 13.3 percent of UM's freshman class, compared to 9.4 percent in 2009.

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University of Michigan vice provost for equity, inclusion and academic affairs Robert Sellers sits in the audience during president Mark Schlissel's annual Leadership Breakfast at the Michigan Union on Wednesday, October 5, 2016. Melanie Maxwell | The Ann Arbor News ANN ARBOR NEWS

Moving forward

As the five-year DEI strategic plan has reached the midway point, Sellers believes UM is "turning the corner" in its efforts university-wide and in each of the 49 units.

The opening of the Trotter Multicultural Center and the continued evaluation of the Go Blue Guarantee, in particular, are things to watch, Sellers said.

To those who believe time and resources should be spent elsewhere, Sellers argued making UM an inclusive campus for all is the university's "core mission."

"We believe that we can only do that if we have as diverse a set of experiences and perspectives around the table that's involved in our scholarship, teaching and service as possible," he said. "That doesn't just benefit folks that traditionally haven't been around that table, it benefits everybody."

Lee believes that starts with inclusive teaching in the classroom, she said.

"If some students walk in the classroom feeling that their opinions are less appreciated, that instructors and other students don't really want to hear what they have to say, or that they cannot 'make it' in that field, well, that's a big problem," Lee said.

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Jack Zellweger | The Ann Arbor News

More on this subject

For more information on this subject, check out these stories:

UM's free tuition approach to recruiting low-income students works, study finds

University of Michigan women, minorities less satisfied with campus climate

5 takeaways from UMich's diversity, equity and inclusion efforts

University of Michigan wants more than 8 kids from Ypsilanti High enrolled

Here is how UM is implementing a new $85 million diversity plan