News

Board of Visitors discusses DEI initiatives, faculty political affiliations and U.Va.’s ranking

By Caroline Hagood
June 4, 2023

The Board of Visitors affirmed the importance of various diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across the University in the full Board meeting Friday from 1:45 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Several members also debated tracking data related to political affiliations of faculty members as a form of measuring diversity.

University President Jim Ryan opened the discussion with an overview of the history and importance of diversity, equity and inclusion at the University. The University has formally engaged in DEI initiatives for the last 18 years, with a current annual budget — which supports the 55 dedicated DEI positions at the University — of about $5.8 million.

Board members — including Law alumnus Doug Wetmore, one of Governor Glenn Youngkin’s four most recent appointees — questioned why the University doesn’t track statistics of political ideologies of faculty members as part of their DEI efforts. He suggested a voluntary survey for faculty to self-identify their political standing.

“One of the critical things that a university has is a wide range of political ideas,” Wetmore said. “How come we don't have dashboards that track, for example, the political ideology of the faculty?”

The University currently operates a diversity dashboard that can be used to access the breakdown of different races among students, staff and faculty. The data ranges from 2009 to 2022 and includes a gender breakdown in addition to race.

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