A Masochistic Majority of Students Want DEI Training Made Mandatory
Colleges and corporations may be fleeing DEI indoctrination in droves but students only object to making it mandatory
It was big news in 2024 for close watchers of higher education.
Colleges and corporations last year began distancing themselves from “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (or DEI) initiatives in response to mounting evidence that they are costly, divisive, demoralizing, and often detrimental to DEI’s much-touted objectives. That marked a stark reversal from just two or three years ago when DEI had the appearance of a tidal wave that would sweep everything before it.
But news of DEI’s downside and downfall hasn’t reached most college students, according to new survey results. Most students express continued support for the theoretical goals of DEI but only differ on the question of whether colleges should make such training mandatory.
The “good news” is that 45% of students oppose mandatory DEI training. The bad news is that 53% of students recognize the alleged benefits of DEI initiatives and also believe they should be mandatory.
Here’s how the survey results were reported by Fox News.
As the debate rages on whether U.S. universities should enshrine or cut their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, a new study has found that a large chunk of American college students reject being force-fed these initiatives.
College research and data site College Rover surveyed over 1,000 American college students and found that 45 percent of them oppose making DEI courses mandatory on college campuses.
College Rover founder Bill Townsend, who published the study in November, told Fox News Digital that these students oppose mandatory DEI programs because they "may feel apprehensive about enforced participation, viewing it as limiting personal choice or ideological freedom."
On the other hand, 54 percent of college students believe "these classes should be mandatory for all students," his report noted.
Maybe you can make more sense of it by reading the survey yourself.
The survey also found:
70% of college students describe the overall impact of DEI programs as positive.
49% say their DEI experiences made them more open to diverse perspectives.
30% report that DEI initiatives have shaped their political views; 25% say it made them rethink certain issues.
2 in 5 students have taken a class that focused on race, gender, or identity, and 54% believe these classes should be mandatory for all students.
1 in 10 students feel uncomfortable discussing race, gender, or sexual identity in class, mainly due to the fear of being judged or misunderstood.
Barack Obama, Trevor Noah, and Elon Musk are the top influential figures students rely on for alternative perspectives.
How such attitudes will shape the DEI debate in 2025 remains to be seen. Perhaps students will become more skeptical of DEI the more they’re exposed to and impacted by DEI. But it’s unlikely that the anti-DEI resistance will be led by students if these findings are to be believed.
