Dr. Tabbye Chavous: ‘A Battle for Truth: Setting the Record Straight on DEI at U-M’

By Dr. Tabbye Chavous, Vice Provost for Equity & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer& I have posted previously about the national attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across a variety of public and private sectors, including higher education, attacks that are by and large ideologically and politically driven, not evidence based. On Wednesday, Oct. 16, the New York Times published an article on DEI efforts at the University of Michigan (U-M) that was filled with misinformation, disinformation and, sadly, sexism. Before diving in further, I want to state up front that those of us who do DEI work – both at U-M and nationally – welcome thoughtful, critical questions about our work grounded in accurate data and evidence.& Such inquiries make us more reflective, innovative, and effective. This article was not that. While I am not a journalist, as a professor it reminded me of the novice student writing a class paper who starts with a preconceived thesis on a topic, then looks only for the “evidence” that confirms the thesis, ignoring all evidence to the contrary. In my field (psychology), this is called confirmation bias. (And even new college students rarely exhibit this as egregiously as it was...