2024: 5 times wasteful spending drove student fees and tuition higher

Tuition fees continued to rise in 2024, with students and their families increasingly going into debt on a massive scale to fund their education. Here are five examples of questionable spending by institutions of higher learning. 

1. Report shows UMich spent $100k on DEI Summit, including almost $2,000 on espresso machine

A new report found that it cost the University of Michigan approximately $100,000 to host its annual “DEI Summit” to celebrate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at the school this October. 

Documents show that UMich also spent $5,000 to bring in André Douglas Pond Cummings, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, as a speaker. Professor Cummings, who spells his name in all lowercase letters, alleges he has much experience with “racial and social justice,” according to his university biography. 

2. UC Davis student govt has $20 million budget, uses it to play politics

The student government at the University of California, Davis has an operating budget of $20 million dollars, the execution of which is left at the disposal of students. Amid nationwide campus tension in the months following the Oct 7. Hamas attack on Israel, student leaders used this power to make a political statement against the Jewish State. 

On Feb. 16, the Associated Students, University of California, Davis (ASUCD) at the University of California, Davis passed a bill to divest from companies associated with Israel.

3. NYU willing to pay up to $275k for prof with ‘racism and inequality’ expertise

A leading university in New York City is offering to spend up to $275,000 for a social work professor whose preferred areas of expertise include “racism and inequality.”

New York University’s Silver School of Social Work is seeking a full-time professor with knowledge in areas like the “well-being of historically marginalized groups” and experience working with “diverse populations,” according to an active job posting from the fall. The tenured position will last for nine months, starting in September 2024.

4. UVA spends $20 million each year on DEI personnel: report

A recent report finds that one of the country’s top public schools spends approximately $20 million annually on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) staff positions.

“The University of Virginia (UVA) has at least 235 employees under its ‘diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)’ banner — including 82 students — whose total cost of employment is estimated at $20 million,” OpenTheBooks.com writes. “That’s $15 million in cash compensation plus an additional 30-percent for the annual cost of their benefits.”

5. UChicago grad students sue student union for forcing them to contribute to anti-Israel activities

Graduate students at the University of Chicago are suing the graduate student union at the school, stating they are forced to pay dues to the union and fund anti-Semitism, violating their First Amendment rights. 

Graduate Students United-United Electrical (GSU-UE), the union in question, was sued on July 22 together with its “parent union,” the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. The plaintiff, Graduate Students for Academic Freedom (GSAF), is a group “founded to promote academic freedom, and combat compelled speech and association across American campuses.”