The new count
Campus Reform, citing research from Speech First, reviewed general education rules at 248 colleges and universities and found that 165 of them require students to take a DEI course to graduate. That works out to 67 percent, which is a tidy number for people who like slogans and a messy one for anyone who thought the DEI fad had quietly packed its bags. The same survey said 33 percent of schools did not require a DEI course. It also found that 59 percent of the schools with DEI requirements were public and 41 percent were private. So much for the idea that the bureaucracy ever truly sleeps.
What the courses are doing
The report says some of these required classes push far-left ideological ideas and political advocacy, not just basic classroom discussion. Schools often answer criticism with polished language about inclusion, belonging, and preparing students for a diverse world, which is the sort of PR that can make almost any syllabus sound harmless. But when a course becomes a graduation requirement, it stops being an option and starts acting like a filter. Speech First Executive Director Cherise Trump told Fox Business the group began looking after hearing from students about freshman orientations and online modules, then found that some schools were requiring full semester-long courses. That is a bigger ask than a training video and a lot harder to ignore.
The Loyola Marymount example
One example from the report came from Loyola Marymount University, a private Jesuit school, which offered a course called “Bad Catholics.” The course description said it would explore questions of teaching and authority, belief and dissent, and then move into voices from feminist, Black and Latinx liberation, queer, and eco-theologians. In other words, a theology class with enough political seasoning to make the syllabus blush. Supporters may call that academic freedom. Critics are likely to call it one more sign that campus institutions still treat activism as education and then act shocked when parents read the catalog. Federal orders may say one thing, but university paperwork has a long memory and a very selective hearing.
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