By OpenTheBooks / December 30, 2024
As our research has demonstrated over the past year, American universities have been ideologically captured by left-wing radicalism and are promoting anti-American, neo-Marxist notions under the banner of “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI). While we’ve come to expect stories like this in the ivory towers of Harvard or Princeton, state schools have been caught up in the madness, too.
Ohio State University is a Big 10 school, home of the Buckeyes. It operates in what’s now a dark-red state when it comes to politics. Among its famed recent alumni are Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond) and our Vice President-elect JD Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy.
It’s not exactly where you’d expect to find a hub of DEI-related activity. And yet, after studying ten public institutions in our investigative series, we learned Ohio State is spending the most on payroll for DEI employees.
BACKGROUND
Thanks to transparency, Americans have discovered what’s happening in higher education, and a few states have begun pushing back: According to the Chronicles of Higher Education, DEI offices are now banned in seven public state systems, most recently throughout the University of North Carolina schools. Five additional states have also taken smaller steps to rein in DEI, like banning the use of diversity statements in hiring and admission decisions in state universities. More states have similar legislation pending.
Still, most states around the country continue to pour taxpayer funds and student tuition dollars into salaries for people who push the divisive DEI at institutions of higher learning.
At the same time, foreign funders contribute billions of dollars into American universities, raising questions about how adversarial countries influence research and student life, all while the universities collect billions from U.S. taxpayers.
THE BIG NUMBERS
Ohio State University spent $13.3 million on pay for 201 employees with DEI-related roles last year. That’s the equivalent of full tuition for over 1,000 in-state students at its main Columbus campus.
The highest paid DEI officials are James L. More, vice provost for diversity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at OSU, and Keesha Mitchell, associate vice president for the Office of Institutional Equity, practically tied at just under $300,000 each.
Another 29 people make between $100,000 and $269,000, with titles such as associate dean for diversity, inclusion, and outreach ($269,260), another associate vice president for the Office of Institutional Equity ($226,644), assistant vice provost for diversity and inclusion ($171,889), academic director for diversity and inclusion ($170,435), assistant dean and director of diversity, equity and inclusion ($145,923), among many more.
Categories: Contributors, Education, State of Ohio