Major university accreditor retreats from plans to move away from DEI after complaints from blue state schools

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) announced Monday it will not follow through with removing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements from its accreditation standards.

The accreditor recently released a proposed update to its standards that would have replaced a requirement for a university to make “explicit its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion” with a pledge to promote “institutional excellence and success for all students” to receive accreditation. Not long after, WASC said the decision to reject the change was made after receiving feedback from its membership, which includes the entire University of California (UC) system and the California State University system, as well as feedback from “interested organizations,” according to an announcement.

“Feedback from [WASC Senior College and University Commission’s (WSCUC)] membership and interested organizations made clear that a deeper examination of any change would be necessary,” the commission wrote in the announcement. “Therefore, the institutional ‘commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion’ will remain in all the Standards.”

The commission was expected to vote on Tuesday but announced its backtrack a day earlier, just over a week after reports circulated about its proposed changes.

One of WASC’s members, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), has doubled down on its efforts to increase diversity despite legality concerns. The school laid the groundwork for several others to sidestep the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling banning the use of racial discrimination in college admission decisions.

DEI efforts have been caving to criticism in recent months, with even the country’s largest and most expensive program at the University of Michigan being dismantled after a study found the program failed to promote diversity on campus and actually increased racial tensions. Corporate efforts have also been reaching their end, with major companies like Walmart abandoning DEI policies.

WASC did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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