What VCU Can Do That UVA Won’t
Virginia Commonwealth University has eliminated 13 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion positions, revised some scholarship requirements, and eliminated mandated diversity statements, reports The Richmond Times-Dispatch.
In March, VCU’s board voted 11 to 4 to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order requiring universities to eliminate DEI and racial preferences. The action eliminated the Division of Inclusive Excellence. The university has hired a consultant to ensure VCU is in full compliance.
Reports the RTD:
VCU reviewed the work of 60 employees. Among them, nine were offered other vacant positions; four resigned; four had jobs in which a small percentage of their work involved DEI and had their job descriptions revised; 10 were doing work deemed permissible; 18 were student employees who completed their work for the year and 15 are still under review.
The university did not terminate any employees, school leaders said. Having reduced its staffing level by 13 positions, VCU saves about $2 million.
The university also reviewed 1,700 scholarships. Only seven conflicted with the DEI directive, and the administration is working with the donors to rewrite the requirements.
The Project Gabriel scholarship, which provides free tuition in memory of the enslaved laborers who build the medical school in the 1800s, will remain because it is required by state law.
Additionally, VCU has ended a rule requiring job applicants to write a statement explaining how they would contribute to diversity, equity and inclusion. Likewise, according to the RTD, Provost Fotis Sotiropolous said managers have stopped asking the question of new hires (presumably in interviews). Furthermore, the university has ended a program that trains search committees to eliminate bias.
Not everyone is happy with the decisions. The RTD quotes Board of Visitors member Tyron Nelson. “This really makes me sad as someone who graduated from here,” he said. “VCU degrees run through my family. I wouldn’t even recommend my own people to come here.”
Agree or disagree with VCU’s decision, the Rao administration deserves credit for its transparency. I’ve been tracking his issue pretty closely, and VCU is the only public Virginia university so far to release such detailed findings to the media. Virginia Tech and George Mason University have revealed limited information.
Meanwhile, at UVA…. The University of Virginia, by contrast, has bottled up DEI data tighter than China guards its economic statistics. President Jim Ryan delivered a report on his progress 30 days after the UVA Board of Visitors ordered him to comply with the Trump executive order, but he did not release it to the public, and board members have been told to keep the contents confidential. I have seen no indication that UVA has hired an outside consultant, as VCU has done. But VCU could provide a template for at least minimal compliance with the directive:
DEI job titles and functions
Race-based scholarships
Mandatory DEI statements
Implicit bias training programs
This skims the surface of the changes that need to be made, but it’s a start. DEI administrators at most (if not all) public Virginia universities reinterpreted formal policies, standards and guidelines through a social-justice prism. The most objectionable practice has been encouraging students to adopt racial, ethnic, religious, sexual and gender frames of reference and embrace those categories as a primary source of personal identity. I have seen no indication that such policies have come under scrutiny anywhere.
