Hardly Inclusive, Diversity Mandates Have Politicized Campus Life

College life just isn’t fun anymore. Undergraduates today often find themselves forced into the culture wars, through no fault of their own. The ubiquity of addictive smartphones and polarizing algorithms that run social media sites create trouble. But the main drivers of overly politicized campus life seem to be the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices — divisive, omnipresent forces on campuses that thrust students into the intense, chaotic and often vicious political world. It’s why, perhaps, that DEI offices are under scrutiny across the country.

Two decades ago, when I was an undergraduate, college life was markedly different. DEI offices did not exist, administrators did not set the tone for campus discourse, and cell phones were not in every pocket. As a result, fellow undergraduate students and I had an opportunity to slow down and digest the world around us. I was on campus for both 9/11 and the inception of growing political polarization in 2020. Nonetheless, we still had the time to pause, think deeply, and contemplate politics, history and the social world; we were encouraged by faculty to think, absorb, debate, and hear others. In my dorm, we had truly diverse programming that would be improbable, if not impossible, today. There were substantial and painful disagreements, but we were a residential community that found common ground and shared numerous collective, often joyful, experiences. We were not awash in social media and there was little chance a small dust-up would become national news.

That world is gone. Today, even before incoming students register for classes or unpack their moving boxes, many participate in orientations coordinated by a cadre of administrators from various offices on campus. In many of these sessions, students are inundated with political messaging. They’re told what words to use, and topics that can and cannot be questioned or debated. At required workshops, there is often more emphasis placed on differences and immutable characteristics of students than on community and shared experiences. Being able to learn for the sake of humanistic inquiry no longer seems to be an important feature of higher education in America.

An overemphasis on the ideology of DEI can turn many aspects of college life into a political battlefield. From affinity group centers to residence halls, DEI officers police how students engage with each other; some curtail open exchange and many students choose self-censorship. Should someone slip and conflict with the DEI orthodoxy, there are bias reporting hotlines for students to use. This naturally increases the prevalence of self-censorship, which is dangerous. Gone are the days of learning how to navigate differences, work with others, and experience both the pain and pleasure of complex life.

DEI offices do not appear to be interested in building community bridges. Consider the recent tragedy of Hamas brutally murdering, torturing and kidnapping Israelis in the Oct. 7 surprise attack. Rather than moving quickly to morally condemn a barbaric act, many schools sat in silence. On some campuses, DEI directors provided one-sided narratives in statements about the attack, without acknowledging Hamas’s brutality or the impact that the attack had on Jewish students. There were also cases where administrators took strong positions — former Sen. Ben Sasse, the president of the University of Florida, immediately stated, “What Hamas did is evil and there is no defense for terrorism. This shouldn’t be hard.” Being honest and ethical shouldn’t be hard, or that uncommon.

While many students want to condemn the violence and speak out against Hamas, or talk about the real troubles faced by the Palestinians, they are afraid of administrators, of being “canceled” or harmed. Student groups like Students for Justice in Palestine are organizing, vocal and threatening violence, even advocating for the death of Jewish students and the destruction of Israel on social media. A professor at the University of Virginia reportedly offered extra credit to students who participate in programming put on by Students for Justice in Palestine.

As Tabia Lee, a former DEI administrator, has observed, “DEI is built on the unshakable belief that the world is divided into two groups of people: the oppressors and the oppressed.” Jews are branded as oppressors and Israel is considered a “genocidal, settler, colonialist state,” Lee says. This way of thinking, she says, means that “criticizing Israel and the Jewish people is not only acceptable but praiseworthy” and “if you defend them, you’re actively abetting racist oppression.” Rather than supporting students struggling with violence and death, the divisiveness on campuses allows the pressure and intensity to mount. DEI offices have failed to achieve their real mandate of supporting all students of all backgrounds.

The Israel-Hamas war is only the tip of the iceberg.

Every facet of life has become politicized on most campuses. With the prevalence of social media, students hold the power to turn an out-of-context comment into a viral moment. As a result, some regularly silence themselves to prevent their humiliation or worse. There should be no wonder why Gen Z students are dealing with intense stress, depression, anxiety and social problems. If collegiate life — from course readings to dating to sports — has become an existential battlefield, monitored with “right” and “wrong” answers and scripts for behavior, how can students make mistakes, be foolish, get into heated arguments, and learn from questioning? They can’t — and, as a primary contributor, DEI offices should be seriously reformed or simply dismantled.

Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.