Michaelanne Thomas
@michaelannephd.bsky.social
390 followers 244 following 18 posts
Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information | anthropology of technology | precarity, activism, collaboration | Latin America + US | also parenting, animals, & tiny things | michaelannethomas.com
![Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will continue at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design
Dear Colleagues,
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) will continue at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design because our academic program and DEl initiatives are legally compliant, in alignment with our university values, and an extension of the mission of our school.
On Thursday, March 27, 2025 at 3:30 p.m., President Ono, Provost McCauley, CFO Chatas, and VP for Medical Affairs Runge wrote to the University of Michigan community announcing the elimination of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI), the discontinuation of the university DEl 2.0 Strategic Plan, university-wide elimination of diversity statements, and legal review of existing programs to ensure they comply with federal law and guidance. Two hours prior to this announcement, I was walking through Pierpont Commons and took a picture of this University of Michigan sign, which explicitly states, "Our Core Values:
Integrity, Respect, Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, Innovation." The move to eliminate the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion directly contradicts these institutional values. While I, as Dean, and Stamps, as a school, did not directly create the University of Michigan's Culture Journey or signify these six values, we have collectively worked to honor them.
Integrity, Respect, Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, and Innovation are aspirations that establish a benchmark by which to measure our actions, actions that work to build and sustain our community. Throughout the 2024 national election, DEl, immigrants, and trans communities have been targeted as political flashpoints. On January 27, 2025, two DEI-related
Executive Orders that potentially impact the university were issued, including the Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity order, which expands the application of the Supreme Court ruling that struck down... [truncated due to character limit]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7v32ymwa2bz72sihnbipopxg/bafkreibfthiw2qsoxpbh5qghqwfpycrlxbvxgenrtyoyveavx5k4rgi6ka)
![I assure you, the Stamps School's academic program and initiatives to support faculty, students, and staff are fully legal and ethical. Secondly, the central claim in the "Dear Colleague" letter is erroneous, which attempts to argue that the United States wasn't founded upon structural racism. Despite efforts to rewrite history, the fact remains that the United States was founded upon systemic and structural racism. Chattel slavery, African Americans designated as 3/5ths a person, broken treaties and forced relocation, and Jim Crow laws are just a few examples of racism that is structural and systemic. A further example that systemic and structural discrimination existed in the country's formation is the fact that women did not have the right to vote until 1920, as suffrage has existed for only 105 years. The forces behind the "Dear Colleague" letter want to ignore these difficult truths that our country was formed on very unequal and discriminatory terms. Wealth that was generated through the formation of the United States came from land-taking and the greatest form of dehumanization, enslavement. These are difficult truths that our own
University of Michigan's Inclusive History
Project articulates through the most profound scholarly rigor and peer review. We must reckon with these difficult truths and figure out how to co-build the future together. This mandate of reckoning with history is the imperative that the civil rights movement and generation gave us, and we must now steward onward. Rather than reaffirming that we are operating academic programs that are legally compliant and affirming the value and prestige of the peer-reviewed knowledge production produced by the University of Michigan's 100 academic programs that are ranked in the national top 10 within their respective fields, yesterday, the university chose to eliminate the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion..... [truncated due to character limit]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7v32ymwa2bz72sihnbipopxg/bafkreieiju2ivbgrhm7723wgu3ttfvia32vh3umapjfv3axlg333v24lxq)
