CHANGE (IT BACK): DEI double take.

In The DEI Catch-22, Atlantic writer Rose Horowitch confirms what I suspected: During the Biden administration, researchers were under pressure to add language on “diversity” and “equity” to grant applications. Now, under the Trump administration, they fear DEI verbiage will doom their research funding.

“When the Trump administration announced that it was canceling $400 million worth of grants to and contracts with Columbia University, ostensibly to punish the university for its handling of anti-Semitism amid pro-Palestinian campus protests,” researchers looked for patterns in which grants were canceled, she writes. “As far as they can tell, nearly all of the canceled grants seem to have made some mention of diversity, equity, inclusion, or other disfavored topics” medical school researchers told her.

“Making the cuts even more maddening is the fact that, at least until a few months ago, the federal government required researchers to include plans to ‘enhance diversity’ in many grant applications,” she writes.

Exit quote: “The University of California system will no longer require would-be professors to submit a ‘diversity statement’ pledging their allegiance to DEI. These statements were unpopular with many professors.”