Staff Reports
The Ohio State University has outdone itself in the race for the most extravagant spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), throwing away a staggering $13.3 million on salaries for a whopping 201 DEI employees in 2023 alone. This ludicrous expenditure, viewers, could cover the tuition for over 1,000 students, which raises a critical question: what about the actual students who came to Ohio State to learn something useful, like, say, engineering or accounting? Apparently, while the tuition-paying Buckeyes toil through their textbooks, a small army of DEI officials stands ready to ensure that every conceivable leftist agenda is fully represented, and the concept of reality remains firmly on the back burner.
Among the sparkling array of titles these DEI officials proudly boast, two of them claimed almost $300,000 per year in salary, with a full 29 others reveling in six-figure compensation. With titles ranging from “Diversity & Inclusion” czar to “Institutional Equity” bureaucrat, it’s hard to ignore the impression that rather than pushing scholarly achievement, this crew is more dedicated to radical leftist indoctrination through peculiar classes with topics that even they must recognize might raise a few eyebrows.
DEI is a joke. $1 billion+ granted to “research and make a plan”
It’s an indirect solution when its understood that black ppl couldnt attend certain schools, jobs etc and that black ppl want reperations to elevate all of America. The program itself isnt equal in its employment pic.twitter.com/aafPHDcf59
— Charizma Davis (@DavisCharizma) December 30, 2024
For instance, courses tackle the “lesbian experience in the United States” and aim to, quite gracefully, “disrupt the gendered and heterosexual assumptions” embedded in our understanding of the environment and nature. Let’s be honest: what every college student needs in their 400-level environmental science class is a thorough dive into human sexuality rather than sturdy statistics on climate change. It’s academia gone wild, where brainstorming how to fix planetary problems gets tangled up with identity politics and social justice. What happened to good old-fashioned chemistry?
The funding for these displays of educational excess doesn’t pop out of thin air. Open The Books recently revealed that some of these DEI programs have been financed by taxpayer dollars. Not to mention, OSU has raked in over $3 billion in federal grants since 2020, financing initiatives that provide unique experiences for youth that might as well belong to a Disney Channel original movie. Who would’ve thought that climbing rocks could be tied into lessons on geoscience and artistic expression for teenage girls and nonbinary individuals? Over the Rockies no less! Meanwhile, students are drowning in student loan debt, seeking practical skills to boost their careers.
As if it wasn’t enough to reshape education at home, Ohio State has also accepted a staggering $203.5 million from foreign sources, with millions flowing in particularly from China and Saudi Arabia. This raises eyebrows about what exactly is being taught on campus. With foreign donors pulling strings, one can easily imagine that academic freedom is taking a backseat to the whims of countries that are more concerned about influencing theology than fostering genuine intellectual debate.
Several other states have already had the good sense to clamp down on flowering DEI agendas, with Idaho, Texas, and Florida leading the charge. Even more enlightening is the evidence from the University of Michigan, where their DEI office was shown to not only miss the mark but to also sabotage its own intended purpose by intensifying divisions among students. OSU’s silence in response to these mounting concerns speaks volumes. As the conversation around higher education continues to evolve, the question remains: who really benefits from these initiatives, the students or the bloated bureaucracy that is more invested in virtue signaling than in genuine educational outcomes?
