DEI requirements at state universities cost $1.8 billion every four years, report claims
State universities also make undergraduates invest ‘at least 40 million student hours satisfying mandatory DEI general education course requirements.’
DEI has increasingly been criticized in recent years.
A recent report from an Arizona non-profit claims that Americans are forced to spend exorbitant sums to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in higher education.
The report, issued by the Goldwater Institute, is titled: “Billions for DEI in Higher Ed: The Cost of Indoctrination.”
One of the report’s main findings is that “DEI general education course mandates cost students and state taxpayers at least (and likely more than) $1.8 billion via tuition and state appropriations over each four-year period in which undergraduate student bodies must complete these requirements.”
Many of these mandates are imposed by the universities. In 2024, the organization Speech First surveyed 248 private and public universities and found that two-thirds of private and public universities surveyed required DEI curriculum.
[RELATED: Alabama Professors and Students Sue to Overturn anti-DEI State Law]
The Goldwater Institute also highlights that undergraduate students at state universities need to invest “at least 40 million student hours satisfying mandatory DEI general education course requirements . . . simply in order to graduate.”
Goldwater Director of Education Policy Matt Beienburg told Campus Reform: “It’s almost unbelievable that amid the runaway costs of college and rising student debt, our public universities have been forcing students and taxpayers into paying for these bloated, politically driven DEI courses simply to graduate. While President Trump has landed an incredible blow against the DEI regime in higher education, his executive orders correctly leave the process of setting course curricula to the states.”
He continued: “Academic freedom is not a license for leftwing faculty to force students and taxpayers into supporting such nakedly partisan ideological campaigns. The academics at these institutions have proven themselves unwilling, or incapable, of safeguarding free intellectual inquiry and diversity of thought, and elected state lawmakers are right to restore these institutions to their original mission by eliminating radical DEI course requirements, mandatory ‘diversity statements,’ and the like.”
While DEI proponents argue that such initiatives address supposed historical injustices, critics claim they foster division.
For example, a November report co-published by Rutgers University researchers found that DEI can foment disunity, often casting well-meaning opponents of DEI in a negative light.
Critics also argue that DEI requirements impose ideological conformity and stifle open debate and academic inquiry.
[RELATED: Dept. of Education rolls back DEI under new Trump executive orders]
Several institutions are reconsidering their DEI commitments. The University of Michigan, for example, announced in December it would curb its DEI campaign and stop requiring diversity statements “as part of faculty hiring, promotion and tenure.”
The Mississippi legislature is also currently considering legislation to ban DEI in higher education in the state, and Indiana Gov. Mike Braun took action against DEI through an executive order in January.
Campus Reform has contacted the Goldwater Institute for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
