Trump Takes Aim At B-School Faculty Diversity
Business schools had largely been flying under the radar in the first months of the Trump administration as the new president waged a culture war on diversity programs at universities and colleges across the United States.
That changed significantly in the last two weeks.
Days after the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business drew heavy criticism for capitulating to pressure in replacing 'diversity and inclusion' with 'community and connectedness' in its guiding principles for accredited schools, the administration's Department of Education on Friday announced an investigation into a program sponsored by the AACSB that promotes racial diversity in B-school faculty — as well as 45 universities and their business schools that are involved in it.
The schools targeted by the investigation into the Ph.D. Project for allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs include Yale University, Cornell University, MIT, NYU, the University of Michigan, the Ohio State University and the University of California Berkeley. (See the full list below.)
The Ph.D. Project has spent 30 years working to increase the number of underrepresented faculty in U.S. business schools, marking its three-decade anniversary in July of 2024. Its founding partners are KPMG, the global network of audit, tax, and advisory services firms; AACSB; and the Graduate Management Admission Council, the global association of leading graduate B-schools that administers the Graduate Management Admission Test, which remains the world's most widely used graduate business school assessment. LinkedIn is among the business partners that help finance the program, according to a report in The New York Times.
Since its launch in 1994, the program has 'helped increase the number of Black/African American, Latinx/Hispanic American, and Native American professors, administrators, and academic leaders at colleges and universities from 294 to 1,700,' according to information available on the project's website. Of those 1,700, 1,303 are currently teaching at institutions of higher learning. 'Additionally, close to 250 members are currently enrolled in business Ph.D. programs and about 50 new student members join the Project each year. These success stories are powered by a vast network of partners, including more than 300 doctoral- and non-doctoral-granting institutions, over 40 professional associations, and dozens of corporations.'
'The Ph.D. Project is the most successful social impact initiative I've ever seen. I know this model works because I saw it play out in my own life,' says Ph.D. Project member and former AASCB board member Ian Williamson, who is dean of the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine. He continues, 'This organization is addressing a big problem today: the lack of representation in business and people studying business. We believe that when you change the people in front of the classroom, you can change the people who attend the class. The 'Role Model Effect' is extraordinarily powerful because it's built upon strong science around self-efficacy.'
That doesn't sit well with President Donald Trump, whose campaign to stamp out diversity, equity, and inclusion policies caused the AACSB earlier this week to reframe its once-loud embrace of diversity and inclusion, leading to charges that the accrediting body had suffered a 'failure of leadership.' Trump's administration opposes any effort to give assistance to one racial group over another.
'The Department is working to reorient civil rights enforcement to ensure all students are protected from illegal discrimination. Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,' recently confirmed Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in announcing the investigation into the 45 schools. 'We will not yield on this commitment.'
The Times reports that the Ph.D. Project responded to the announcement of the investigation with a statement saying that it had opened its process to anyone regardless of race or ethnicity, thus complying with the administration's mandate to eliminate diversity preferences.
The universities now under investigation for allegedly engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs are:
Arizona State University – Main Campus
Boise State University
Cal Poly Humboldt
California State University – San Bernadino
Carnegie Mellon University
Clemson University
Cornell University
Duke University
Emory University
George Mason University
Georgetown University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Montana State University-Bozeman
New York University (NYU)
Rice University
Rutgers University
The Ohio State University – Main Campus
Towson University
Tulane University
University of Arkansas – Fayetteville
University of California-Berkeley
University of Chicago
University of Cincinnati – Main Campus
University of Colorado – Colorado Springs
University of Delaware
University of Kansas
University of Kentucky
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
University of Nebraska at Omaha
University of New Mexico – Main Campus
University of North Dakota – Main Campus
University of North Texas – Denton
University of Notre Dame
University of NV – Las Vegas
University of Oregon
University of Rhode Island
University of Utah
University of Washington-Seattle
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Wyoming
Vanderbilt University
Washington State University
Washington University in St. Louis
Yale University
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