The University of Virginia spends $20 million a year on its 235 DEI employees, including a woman who says the rise in premature deaths in Appalachia is due to the “toxicity of whiteness,” damning report says.
Open the Books, a spending watchdog, says Charlottesville’s flagship public university is cutting $15 million in salaries and $5 million more in benefits for its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) team.
They include Rachel Spraker, an “equity and inclusion” official, who calls the wave of premature deaths in Appalachia a sign of “white toxicity,” and the school’s diversity chief, Martin Davidson, who pockets almost $600,000 a year.
The university disputed parts of the report and says it only spends $5.8 million of its $2.3 billion annual academic budget on DEI.
The University of Virginia educates 17,000 undergraduates on its grounds and is ranked the top school in the state.
Investigators studied the school’s payroll file for 2023 and then estimated an additional 30 percent in benefits spending.
Adam Andrzejewski, author of the damning study, said UVA has “adopted the divisive quotas of the neo-Marxist DEI crowd.”
“Tens of millions of dollars in student tuition and taxpayer money are flowing toward promoting anti-American notions and radical philosophies that judge the color of one’s skin rather than the content (and competence) of one’s character.”
For some, DEI schemes are important and necessary, helping to overcome historical racism and sexism and making it easier for people from all backgrounds to get ahead in schools, universities and offices.
But critics say they are a form of reverse discrimination that harms straight white men.
DEI schemes face a backlash from conservative legal action groups, especially those funded by taxpayers.
This month, the University of Florida canceled all DEI positions and closed diversity programs in the state’s publicly funded education system in compliance with new state regulations.
Investigators highlight Rachel Spraker, an equity and inclusion expert who makes $242,840 a year and has a history of controversial comments about racism in her native Appalachia.
The school’s top DEI director, Martin Davidson, wrote a book about why diversity efforts fail.
Andrzejewski’s report on UVA points to a bloated DEI infrastructure, about four times the cost of Florida’s closed programs, he says.
It highlights Davidson, senior associate dean of the Darden School of Business and global chief diversity officer, UVA’s top DEI earner with an annual salary and benefits package of $587,340.
That’s more than three times the salary of Virginia’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, the report says.
Davidson is the author of a book about diversity in American institutions, in which he says they often fail to make progress.
DEI’s second-largest paycheck goes to Kevin McDonald, vice president of diversity, equity, inclusion and community partnerships, who takes home about $520,000 in benefits, according to the report.
Other DEI chiefs pocket more than $250,000 each year, a good deal in a state where the average cost of living is a modest $48,000 a year.
Investigators examined the school’s 2023 payroll file, took the positions and salaries and then estimated an additional 30 percent in benefits expenses.
Virginia students pay $20,000 to attend UVA each year, compared to $56,000 for those from out of state.
They highlight Spraker, an equity and inclusion expert who makes $242,840 a year and has a history of controversial comments about racism in her home region of Appalachia.
Spraker has spoken about how his community embraced white supremacy and suggests that is related to its social problems, which include Rising rates of firearm suicides and opioid overdose deaths.
“I grew up in rural Appalachia,” he says in a video for the university’s AntiRacist Table group.
‘White people are also dying of whiteness. The toxicity of whiteness…many of them were also dying prematurely, in their twenties.’
University spokesman Brian Coy spoke in favor of UVA’s diversity efforts and disputed the report’s findings.
“The study appears to count people who have full-time positions in non-DEI positions and count them as full-time DEI employees,” he told DailyMail.com.
Davidson, for example, leads DEI efforts but is also a regular teacher, Coy said.
University spokesman Brian Coy disputed the report, saying UVA only spends $5.8 million on DEI.
Taxpayers in Virginia and elsewhere took to social media to complain about what they considered an excessive waste of public money.
Instead of 235 DEI employees, UVA “has 55 dedicated DEI positions at an institution of more than 40,000 students, faculty and staff,” at a cost of $5.8 million a year, he added.
Andrzejewski says his numbers are correct and that the school “has consistently underestimated DEI staff in its presentations to the public.”
Taxpayers in Virginia and elsewhere took to social media to complain about what they saw as excessive waste of tax money.
One user said the money could easily provide ‘full scholarships’ to 100 deserving students.
Another said it “seems like a lot of money for identity-based pizza parties.”
Virginia students pay $20,000 to attend UVA each year, compared to $56,000 for those from out of state.
DEI staff now occupy more than 3.4 positions per 100 tenured faculty, according to nationwide research by The Heritage Foundation, stoking fears of a growing sector that some say is nothing more than a box-ticking exercise.