The University of Michigan is offering a “Pronouns 101” course for K-12 public schools for just $600, though discounts are available on “on a sliding scale for Minority Serving Institutions.”
“Interested in expanding your knowledge of LGBTQIA2S+ identities and topics? Want to increase your knowledge of inclusive practices?” the UM Spectrum Center questions on its website. “Our education and training team facilitates workshops for students, faculty, and staff, focused on best practices, using affirming language, and developing skills to interrupt homophobia and transphobia.”
Those workshops are free for UM departments and students, but are also available for a fee to “external educational institutions, such as other universities and K-12 public schools” on a limited basis, according to the website.
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UM’s Spectrum Center claims it became “the first center in higher education to support LGBTQIA2S+ students on campus” when it was established in 1971 by “member of the Gay Liberation Front and Radical Lesbians – Jim Toy and Cynthia Gair, respectively.”
The center currently offers two workshops: “Pronouns 101” and “Towards Solidarity: Allyship in Action.”
The former involves two hours on basic pronoun usage that allows participants “the chance to practice using different sets of pronouns and work on bystander intervention skills.”
Participants learn what pronouns are, how to identify them in sentences, and to “practice different methods of addressing harm using a tool called scripting (coined by author Ritu Bhasin).”
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In addition, those who attend “use an action planning resource to develop one tangible, actionable goal related to their increased inclusivity around pronouns,” according to the Spectrum Center.
Towards Solidarity: Allyship in Action is a six hour workshop focused on a deeper “understanding of, and ability to engage with, LGBTQIA2S+ allyship.”
“In Towards Solidarity, we move beyond basic conceptualizations of allyship and challenge participants to center liberation as they show up actively for LGBTQIA2S+ communities.”
Participants learn to move beyond ally as an “identity term” to “solidarity, a developmental, intersectional, and active set of practices.”
The Spectrum Center contends the Towards Solidary workshop, which costs $1,800, will “increase self-awareness” and “gain knowledge about how LGBTQ+ oppression operates on multiple levels.”
Attendees “identify inclusive practices, skills, and resources to support LGBTQ+ communities” and “commit to the practice of allyship and showing up in solidarity in their personal and professional lives.”
Schools interested in booking a workshop will need to reserve a time several weeks in advance with a minimum of 20 participants. The workshops are available in virtual and in-person formats, though the latter requires reimbursement for gas money.
For Towards Solidarity, “participants are expected to complete our Introduction to LGBTQIA2S+ Communities and Identities webcourse before attending.”
That webcourse, unfortunately, is only open to UM-affiliated individuals with valid UM email addresses.
“In Introduction to LGBTQIA2S+ Communities and Identities, we provide an overview of terms and topics related to gender, sexuality, and marginalization, with a focus on terms relevant to LGBTQIA2S+ communities,” according to the Spectrum Center. “We also aim to disrupt misinformation you may have encountered, or even internalized, about LGBTQIA2S+ people. Our hope is that everyone will find value in this course.”
The offerings fit into a much broader diversity, equity, and inclusion program on campus that has drawn criticism from students, lawmakers and others over its massive price tag and impact on faculty diversity.
A investigation by The New York Times published in October found UM has spent about a quarter billion dollars on DEI initiatives since it created one of the largest university programs in the country in 2016. A review by UM’s DEI office last spring found 56% of that spending went to salaries and benefits for DEI staff across the universities three campuses, though some regents believe it’s more.
Documents obtained by The College Fix this summer revealed significant sums also went toward DEI events featuring paid speakers and entertainment, catering, and party supplies.
A DEI Summit “Truth Telling: The Kinship of Critical Race Theory and Hip-Hop” cost about $100,000 for a single day, with $60,000 for keynote speakers, and $32,564 for catering, audio equipment, decorations, and photography.
UM spent another $6,650 on other performers, $1,750 on a mobile espresso cart, $395 on a photo booth, and $550 on a cotton candy cart, records show.
The event and others like it are in addition to at least 241 employees focused on DEI with payroll costs of roughly $30.68 million, or enough to “cover in-state tuition and fees for 1,781 undergraduate students” at a university that’s heavily subsidized by taxpayers, according to The Fix.
Beyond the money, Republican Regent Sarah Hubbard told The Times the growing use of diversity statements across the university has resulted in a less diverse faculty.
“We must do better in hiring a wide variety of voices in our faculty so that we’re teaching a wide variety of opinions to our students,” Hubbard said.
UM regents are now considering reforms for the DEI program, moving first to do away with the diversity statements, though some are calling for more.
“It is my hope that our efforts in DEI focus on redirecting funding directly to students and away from a bloated administrative bureaucracy,” Democratic UM Regent Mark Bernstein told The Times.
Michigan taxpayers subsidized UM by $413 million in fiscal year 2024, according to the UM budget.
Last week, UM fired its top DEI official for “extremely poor” judgement.
Rachel Dawson, UM’s former director for the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives, reportedly said at a conference in March that the university is “controlled by wealthy Jews” and that Jewish students are “wealthy and privileged” and do not need her former office’s services, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.
“Ms. Dawson was fired by the Provost because her behavior as a university representative at a conference and during an on-campus protest was inconsistent with her job responsibilities, including leading a multicultural office charged with supporting all students, and represented extremely poor judgment,” Kay Jarvis, UM’s director of public affairs, wrote in an email cited by The Detroit News.
Dawson’s attorney, Amanda Ghannam, told the news site her client has “consistently and unequivocally” denied making the comments and she plans to sue UM.