The University of Michigan, one of higher education’s staunchest proponents of diversity, equity and inclusion plans, is weighing changes to its own program as colleges across the country brace for the second presidency of Donald J. Trump and a Republican assault on such initiatives in government and academia.
Regents overseeing the university said in interviews that they expected the board to seek limits on so-called diversity statements in hiring and promotion decisions. The board may also look to shift more of Michigan’s overall D.E.I. budget into recruitment programs and tuition guarantees for lower-income students.
The changes under consideration would make Michigan one of the first selective public universities to rethink D.E.I. from the inside, rather than under legislative pressure. Democrats have a 6-2 majority on the board, which is elected by state voters and generally operates by consensus. Michigan’s state constitution provides regents ultimate control over the university’s finances as well as general oversight of the school.
The regents will next meet on Dec. 5. But early discussions between the regents and other university officials have sparked intense pushback on Michigan’s campus in recent days. D.E.I. administrators have mounted a campaign to rebut criticism of their work and preserve their funding.
On Monday, hundreds of D.E.I. supporters gathered on the Ann Arbor campus for a rally.
“I don’t think a single person in this audience thinks that the D.E.I. initiatives at this university are perfect,” said one of the speakers, Pragya Choudhary, a junior. “But I know that every single person here knows that without those initiatives, this university would be a worse place yet.”
The debates have underscored broader confusion on campus over what the D.E.I. program does and what the regents intend to do. Some faculty and students have warned that the regents may seek a wholesale defunding of the school’s D.E.I. efforts — a drastic step that does not appear to be under consideration. Others have attacked the regents for supposedly planning to cut the school’s popular Go Blue Guarantee, which provides full tuition for lower-income students from Michigan. In fact, regents said, they hoped to expand it.
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