Report finds VA public colleges have highest proportion of DEI staff

A once reliable red state now appears to be at the forefront of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) indoctrination.

Public universities in Virginia have the highest proportion of DEI administrators among major U.S. colleges and universities, a Heritage Foundation report from Sept. 21 has found.

Heritage fellows Jay Greene and Mike Gonzalez examined colleges in the Power Five athletic conferences (the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Pac-12, the Southeastern Conference, and the Atlantic Coast Conference), finding that public schools in Virginia have an average ratio of 6.5 DEI staffers per 100 faculty members. In contrast, schools in Oregon, California, and Michigan have a ratio of 4.6, 4.5, and 4.3 DEI staffers, respectively.

[RELATED: Millions of dollars spent on DEI at Alabama universities, Claremont Institute reports]

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Greene told Campus Reform that, “The public universities with the smallest DEI bureaucracies tend to be in conservative states, such as Florida, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Alabama.”

Rather than improving the educational experience of students, a higher presence of DEI bureaucracy on a campus is correlated with negative perceptions of the campus climate, according to the think tank’s research. Greene and Gonzalez argue that DEI staff promote division and conformity rather than encouraging diversity on social and political issues. 

Elise McCue, a multimedia journalism student at Virginia Tech, told Campus Reform, “I think that the campus climate doesn’t lend itself to free and open discussions on social issues, and at Virginia Tech, DEI doesn’t include diversity of thought.”

“A number of my own friends have ‘come out’ to me as non-liberal, but they don’t want me telling our other friends, and quite honestly, I get it.” McCue continued. “We’re not taught critical thinking when it comes to social issues, we’re just taught to ingest and regurgitate these initiatives that they’re putting forth on campus.”

McCue said that the Virginia Tech administration promotes a wide array of DEI activities, including a “Pride” week and a holiday drag show, but does nothing to promote the activities of conservative groups like Young Americans for Freedom or Students for Life. 

“It feels like we’re being stifled,” she also said. 

[RELATED: University president claims DEI efforts are at the ‘core’ of the purpose of higher ed]

Meanwhile, George Mason University boasts one of the highest ratios at 7.4 DEI administrators per one 100 faculty, with 69 DEI positions listed publicly according to Greene on X.

The GMU University Life website encourages students to sign petitions, take part in activism, and propagate “anti-racism” training materials. The page also expresses support for left-wing organizations like Black Lives Matter, the Bail Project, and Minnesota Freedom Fund, groups which Greene and Gonzalez say “advocate defunding police departments, diminishing the traditional family, revolutionary redistribution of wealth, and radical gender ideology.”

On Sept. 26, George Mason University President Gregory Washington issued a public statement that disputed Heritage’s accounting of DEI staff, claiming that the actual number of DEI roles “sits at less than a third of their claims.”

Greene and Gonzalez published a response to Washington in which they stood by their original tally. 

Campus Reform contacted GMU for clarification of its total number of DEI staff. This story will be updated accordingly.

Editor’s note: The author of this story and Elise McCue both served as Heritage Foundation interns. Neither worked with Jay Greene or Mike Gonzalez.