Augusta University seeks 'Chief Diversity Officer' to manage numerous DEI efforts

Augusta University in Georgia is currently seeking to hire a new “Chief Diversity Officer” to provide “for the advancement of diversity and inclusion” at the university. The move comes as part of Augusta’s broader efforts to ensure DEI ideology pervades all aspects of the school.

Candidates must promote an “understanding of the complexity of issues involved in creating and maintaining an inclusive and diverse campus,”  and do so “through more than mere advocacy,” the job posting reads.

The new Chief Diversity Officer will also lead “a comprehensive and representative Diversity and Inclusion Alignment Committee to enhance elements of equity, diversity and inclusion within each college and division,” as well as “recruit and retain an under-represented minority faculty.”

”Safe Zone training” will also be coordinated by the new Officer.

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Augusta University is no stranger to DEI-related efforts. The university has an Office of Diversity and Inclusion, a video advertising their commitment to DEI, and a programmatic document titled “Blueprint for Advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Augusta University 2022-2027.”

”[T]he Office of Diversity and Inclusion, in partnership with Multicultural Student Engagement worked with Augusta University leadership to ensure that as an interwoven priority area, DEI constructs and best practices were integrated into every aspect of the university’s new strategic plan,” the document reads.

It goes on to outline a number of “DEI tactics” the university is committed to utilizing in the coming years, including “[p]rovid[inmg] funding, mentorship and training to
support faculty engagement in diversity-related interdisciplinary research” and “[a]dvocat[ing] for diversity-related expression and inclusive teaching practices” to be considered in tenure and promotion decisions.

The proliferation of DEI-related bureaucracies and associated jobs on college campuses has only increased in recent years, a trend Campus Reform has documented. 

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In 2021, for example, Campus Reform reported on Penn State’s creation of a new “diversity officer” position, the salary for which was considered “confidential.” 

Campus Reform also reported, in 2018, on a study that concluded, “We are unable to find significant statistical evidence that preexisting growth in diversity for underrepresented racial/ethnic minority groups is affected by the hiring of an executive level diversity officer for new tenure and non-tenure track hires, faculty hired with tenure, or for university administrator hires.”

Campus Reform contacted Augusta University and Augusta’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion for comment and will update accordingly.