New Report: DEI By Any Other Name: Is Yale Hiding Its DEI Infrastructure?
The Buckley Institute is pleased to announce the release of our new report on Yale’s DEI staff, DEI By Any Other Name: Is Yale Hiding Its DEI Infrastructure?
The report takes a deep dive into the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) infrastructure at Yale. It uncovers how more than eight months after Yale formally ended its Belonging at Yale DEI effort, many of the DEI-related staff appear to still be in place with new titles.
“The reported end of Yale’s flagship DEI program seems to have been a rebranding exercise,” said Buckley Institute Founder and Executive Director Lauren Noble ’11. “When the political winds shifted, Yale simply renamed its DEI offices and retitled its DEI employees. Reversing the decline of trust in America’s elite universities requires real reforms, not a find-and-replace makeover.”
The Buckley Institute’s research found that though Yale supposedly ended its DEI efforts, 208 DEI employees remain on staff at Yale University, including in its 14 graduate and professional schools. In many cases, rather than end the DEI programs, Yale renamed them. Of the 208 DEI employees the Buckley Institute found still at Yale, 75 (36%) received new titles with less controversial terms like “community engagement” or “collaborative excellence.” Yale did a similar makeover for nine of its DEI offices, most often just removing DEI language from the titles. In some cases, offices were just merged with and staff reassigned to an existing office or team with no DEI references in the name.
DEI Staff to Student Ratios
The DEI-related staff to student ratios are also significant. Across all of Yale, there are 13.4 per 1,000 students, with the DEI staff to student ratio reaching peaks of 53.6 per 1,000 students in the School of Medicine and 23.6 in the School of Public Health.
In a telling example, the School of Public Health launched an Activist in Residence Program in 2022. The most recently appointed activist in residence is now referred to as “Community Scholar” and remains on the School of Public Health staff.
