‘Going Woke in Dixie:’ Claremont Reports U. of Alabama and Auburn U. Spend $5+ Million a Year on DEI

The University of Alabama and Auburn University currently spend more than $5 million annually on their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, a report by the Claremont Institute has revealed.

“All across the country, administrators are transforming universities into institutions dedicated to political activism and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI),” the Claremont Institute wrote in a report titled, Going Woke In Dixie?: The progress of DEI at the University of Alabama & Auburn University.

“Alabama and Auburn have adopted extensive plans for the recruitment of minority students, faculty, and staff, and for transforming the campus culture to represent the DEI ideology,” the report added. “The combined cost of DEI programming and personnel at Alabama and Auburn exceeds $5 million annually, according to our estimates.”

The University of Alabama unveiled its strategic plan to adopt “a comprehensive view of equity, inclusion and diversity” in 2016, under an initiative known as “Advancing the Flagship,” the Claremont Institute report noted.

The initiative directs the university to establish a position for “an equity, inclusion and diversity officer that is responsible for the organizational oversight and assessment of plans, programs and activities that enhance equity, inclusion and diversity,” the plan reads.

Then, the “DEI regime” at the university kicked into higher gear with “The Path Forward Diversity Report” in 2020, which serves as a DEI strategic plan for the school, the Claremont Institute report added.

Moreover, the “Path Forward” initiative connects, for the first time, the goals of “recruiting and retaining minority students, faculty and staff” for DEI purposes to “a litany of specific policy recommendations.”

All nine of the University of Alabama’s colleges are contributing to advancing DEI initiatives, with six of them even having DEI deans, the report noted.

Auburn University’s DEI build-out also started in 2016, via its “Climate Study.”

President Jay Gogue and Provost Timothy Boosinger established a committee in December 2015 with the goal to expand “the tent of inclusion,” calibrate “the scales of equity,” and embrace “wonderful diversity,” according to the report.

In June 2020, after the George Floyd riots, Gogue organized a Presidential Task Force for Opportunity and Equity to emphasize two sets of recommendations for new initiatives.

Its goal was to make recommendations about DEI education and recruitment of minority students, faculty, and staff, as well as expand and standardize “evidence-based” bias education procedures for search committees in all faculty hirings.

The report also pointed out that Auburn has accumulated twenty DEI-related staff members earning an average of $100,000, with its highest paid official vice president and associate provost for inclusion and diversity, Taffye Benson Clayton, earning more than $275,000 annually.

Overall, the school spends at least $2 million on DEI personnel.

Dr. Scott Yenor, author of the report and Senior Director of State Coalitions at the Claremont Institute, told Campus Reform that both universities have “radicalized their programs since the summer of 2020.”

“What was most surprising is that the DEI efforts at Alabama and Auburn focus on the recruitment of black students to their campuses, but since those efforts have accelerated in 2016 and really accelerated in 2020, there are actually fewer blacks at each university,” Yenor said.

“This failure, well documented, has not in any way led them to reflect on what they are doing,” Yenor added. “They consider their DEI programming a great success. It shows that this is not about diversity so much as ideological conformity on campus.”

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