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A leading Senate Republican has requested that the Education Department’s Office of Inspector General investigate how colleges and universities use federal money to support diversity, equity and inclusion programs and policies.
“The primary problem with DEI is that it does not actually promote inclusivity,” Louisiana senator Bill Cassidy, the top Republican on the Senate Education Committee, wrote in a letter Tuesday to the Inspector General. “It is the opposite of diversity of thought when all members of the campus community are forced into groups based on their race and heritage.”
Cassidy and other congressional Republicans have been critical of DEI, blaming the policies and programs in part for the increase in antisemitic incidents on college campuses following the start of the war in Gaza. The senator has also sponsored legislation to eliminate federal DEI programs.
Cassidy is asking for an accounting of federal financial aid dollars that went toward operating DEI offices over the past five years. He has also requested a breakdown of how many institutions mandate DEI training for students and employees, and how many require students to take at least one DEI-related class in order to graduate, among other items. The review would include the more than 5,700 colleges and universities that receive federal financial aid.
For institutions currently under investigation for alleged violations of federal civil rights law related to antisemitism, Cassidy wants the inspector general to provide materials used in staff training, freshman orientation programming and classes required for graduation that refer to Jewish people or the state of Israel.
“As recipients of federal grant funding and the beneficiaries of trillions of dollars in federal student loans, colleges and universities should prioritize the academic success of their students over advancing ideological activism,” Cassidy wrote. “As the cost of higher education continues to rise, it is important that Congress receives a full accounting of how much federal funding is spent by colleges and universities to advance the DEI agenda.”
