For years, Lenore Pearlstein noticed the disconnect: Demand for chief diversity officers and other high-level diversity, equity, and inclusion professionals in academia was on the rise, but few programs actually existed to prepare prospective candidates for the jobs.

To fill the void, Pearlstein, co-publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, partnered with the University of Kentucky, a school her publication had long deemed a "Diversity Champion."

She approached UK leaders with her proposal for a doctoral degree in DEI in October 2019, about seven months before the May 2020 killing of George Floyd and subsequent racial-justice protests, which led to skyrocketing demand for DEI trainings and jobs. UK leaders were "immediately enthusiastic" about Pearlstein's idea, according to her magazine.

In the fall of 2021, UK began offering what it's called an "innovative" and a "first of its kind" Ph.D. in Studies in Higher Education with a specialization in Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion.

"This program will be groundbreaking for anyone interested in social justice work," Pearlstein told a reporter for her magazine in March 2021.

Students who completed the Ph.D. and a new graduate certificate in "Senior Diversity Officer Leadership" would have their DEI credentials listed on their transcripts, allowing them to "stand out among the most sought-after leaders in higher education," UK claimed.

Pearlstein told the UK campus news in 2021 that she was "thrilled and honored" to collaborate with the university on "this exciting and impactful endeavor."

Less than four years later, the architects of UK's Ph.D. in DEI seem decidedly less enthusiastic about discussing the degree amid an intense national anti-DEI backlash that could threaten the program and raises questions about the value of a DEI degree.

National Review reached out to several current and former UK leaders who helped stand up the program, which has only awarded a single doctorate degree since its inception. None responded to emails or phone calls. When reached on her phone, Pearlstein declined to answer questions about the UK program she helped create.

"That was years ago, and I really don't have a connection with them anymore," Pearlstein told National Review about UK before hanging up.

The University of Kentucky was far from the only school to roll out a DEI-related degree program in the wake of Floyd's killing and the racial-justice protests and riots that gripped the nation in 2020. Colleges and universities— big and small, public and private — responded to the cultural pressures of the times with a variety of educational offerings aimed at satiating the demands of desperate employers and racial-justice activists.

Bentley University, a small private school near Boston, was the first to offer bachelor's degrees in DEI, according to a 2023 report by USA Today. Nearby, Fairfield University in Connecticut now offers a DEI minor. The University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of business offers both an undergraduate degree with a DEI concentration and a Master of Business Administration with a DEI major.

Tufts University in Massachusetts, the University of Maryland, and St. Thomas University in Minnesota are among the schools offering graduate DEI degrees. Many more schools, including Cornell, Purdue, Arizona State, and Ohio State offer DEI certificate programs.

Many of the schools cite years-old studies and data about the booming DEI field to encourage students to apply. But the ground has shifted significantly since most of those studies were released.

Court rulings, including the Supreme Court's 2023 Students for Fair Admissions ruling barring the use of racial preferences in college admissions, have undermined some of the key legal underpinnings of the DEI movement. Major corporations like Target, Walmart, McDonald's, and Meta are backing off their DEI commitments under pressure from conservative civil rights activists who claim that much of what passes as DEI is just illegal discrimination against straight, white men. Many colleges and universities, including UK, are dismantling their administrative DEI infrastructure, as are some local governments. Even some far-left labor activists are questioning the effectiveness of DEI programs in helping workers, according to a recent report in the New York Times.

The latest, and possibly hardest blow, came last month when Donald Trump, starting in his first hours as president, released executive orders aimed at purging DEI from the federal government, putting federal diversity workers on leave, and leaning on private companies and government contractors to similarly weed out discriminatory DEI practices.

It all raises the question: What is the value of a degree in DEI now that DEI is in retreat?

"I would guess the people with those degrees and certificates are going to try to repackage it in a way that sort of gets at some of the skills that may be transferrable," said Stefan Padfield, executive director of the National Center for Public Policy's anti-woke Free Enterprise Project. "But I think the idea that you're going to slap DEI on your resume and have that be added value, except in a few sort of niche areas, I think that's a long shot."

Kenneth Wong, dean of the University of Maryland's graduate school, told National Review that he and his faculty remain committed to their DEI leadership degree, in part because the country will continue to grow more diverse and because they see value in having "healthy debates" about how to open and expand opportunities for everyone.

He acknowledged that a DEI degree is "probably not going to help you" get a job with an employer that doesn't value or outright opposes DEI, but said not all students pursue the study simply for career advancement.

"I always encourage student to not think about education as something that's completely utilitarian," Wong said. "This is an area that I enjoy studying about, and I think some of our students come to it from that perspective that they really just want to learn more about it."

In the lead-up to the launch of UK's Ph.D program in DEI, Kelly Bradley, a leader in the school's College of Education, told INSIGHT magazine that mentors and prospective partners for the fledging program were "lining up" to get it off the ground. She praised the program as "ideal" for education pros and for others who are "really passionate" about DEI and who "can see themselves doing this work in the future."

"This is going to appeal to lots of different people," Bradley told the magazine.

It's not clear that it did. Bradley did not respond to an email or phone message from National Review, but according to a UK spokeswoman, since launching the program UK has only awarded one Ph.D. with the DEI specialization and 13 graduate certificates.

The Ph.D. program requires 42 credits at $801 per credit hour for Kentucky residents and $2,000 for non-residents, meaning the cost for the degree ranges from at least $33,642 to $84,000, according to university spokeswoman Kristi Willett. The graduate certificate, which requires nine credit hours at $753 per credit hour, costs at least $6,777.

Both the Ph.D. and graduate certificate programs remain active at UK.

"However, the University continues to evaluate and determine the best educational opportunities for our students and will comply with all federal regulations and guidelines," the university said in a statement provided by Willett.

National Review reached out to three people whose LinkedIn accounts identified them as students in UK's Ph.D. program in DEI. None of the students agreed to discuss the program.

Last year, Kentucky lawmakers took aim at DEI programs at state schools but failed to get legislation over the finish line. In August, UK's president announced he was dissolving the school's Office of Institutional Diversity in response to feedback he'd received about it, and in anticipation that lawmakers would take another stab at passing an anti-DEI bill.

It's unclear if legislation that's in the works will specifically prohibit academic programming like UK's Ph.D. degree and graduate certificate. It's also unclear if most Kentucky lawmakers are even aware of the programs.

"I'm going to be honest, I didn't even realize they offered that as a degree program," said State Representative James Tipton, a Republican who chairs a postsecondary education committee. "Of course, I don't know every particular program that every university offers."

While colleges and universities that accept federal money will likely be affected to some degree by Trump's anti-DEI orders, particularly regarding admissions, scholarships and speech-policing, schools probably aren't breaking any laws providing people with a "useless degree," said Dan Morenoff, executive director of the American Civil Rights Project, which fights identity-based discrimination.

"It would not at all surprise me if the state government of Kentucky, if it learned that that exists — which probably no one is paying attention to — intervened to say, 'You are not wasting our resources and tax dollars funding a program like this,'" he said.

In the meantime, he said, he suspects the market will determine the value of a DEI degree. If a DEI credential is viewed as "not just worthless, but in fact a negative that would harm your professional prospects, no one will continue to get it," he said.

In the wake of Trump's anti-DEI efforts, a handful of schools already appear to have ended their degree or certificate programs. Both the West Point and Air Force academies appear to have eliminated their diversity and inclusion minors, according to news reports, though neither school responded to emails or phone calls from National Review about the moves.

Mercer University in Georgia recently stopped listing its DEI management certificate on its website, though a spokeswoman for the private Georgia school declined to answer questions about it, including whether the program exists anymore.

Husson University, a small private school in Maine, developed its DEI certificate program "based on feedback from our corporate partners," but "enrollment since it launched has been minimal," a spokeswoman said in an email. "Therefore, we have determined that the market demand isn't there and are no longer accepting new students into the certificate program and are teaching out current students as they finish their certificate studies."

The DEI degree and certificate programs at most other colleges and universities seem to have survived, for now. National Review reached out to DEI degree program leaders at Tufts, St. Thomas, Fairfield, and the University of Pennsylvania. None of them agreed to speak about their programs or the value of their degrees in the current climate, and most of them didn't respond at all.

Roger Hartley, dean of the College of Public Affairs at the University of Baltimore wrote on Facebook in early February that "Today is a GREAT time to learn about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion," urging people to apply to his school's graduate certificate program because "It's not illegal to learn and prepare for the future!!!" He directed people to "Reach out for more information!" National Review did. Hartley did not respond to phone and email messages.

Jeremey Bennett, a former associate dean at Mercer who was one of the architects of that school's DEI management certificate, told National Review in an email that the aim of their program was to improve organizations, including through building diverse teams, helping students to develop their emotional intelligence, and teaching "strategies for facilitating cooperation among members of a culturally diverse work group."

He said he started developing the program in 2018 for another school due to the increasing number of DEI roles at the time. "The expectation was DEI roles would continue to grow at the same pace as they had for the previous decade," he said.

Despite the backlash against DEI, Bennett said the skills they taught, including learning to manage a diverse workforce, are still valuable.

"The basic principles are not going anywhere," he said. "The world is an increasingly diverse and connected space."

Wong, the University of Maryland dean, said his school launched its DEI degree in 2022 in response to a faculty push and employer demand. The first cohort of eleven students finished last fall. The recent debate over the future of DEI has actually led to increased interest in the program, though the inquiries are now "more guarded and tentative," Wong said.

"They're asking questions, ‘Is this program going to continue? Do you have plans to change it? What's happening with your students who are in the program now?’" he said.

David Gallianetti, a spokesman for Lakeland University, a small private school in Wisconsin, said his school started offering a diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging specialization a couple of years ago for students pursuing master's degrees. It was developed in response to employer requests, he said, though he noted that the number of students who have actually specialized in DEIB is "pretty small."

"We like to have offerings that reflect the marketplace and what employers are looking for," Gallianetti said. "If employers aren't looking for this anymore, might we discontinue offering that as an emphasis? I'm sure it's something we would at least talk about."

Padfield, director of the Free Enterprise Project, said Americans support diversity generally and agree that inequality is a problem, but don't support solving the problem through identity-based discrimination, a tactic that's often employed by DEI supporters.

"Most if not all of the things that DEI ultimately claims to be about can be addressed without focusing on race and sex," he said. "Every inequality, whether it be economic, whether it be health, whether it be educational, whether it be criminality, you could address each of those directly without having to divide us on the basis of race and sex."

Amid the backlash, DEI professionals and supporters have argued that their work is broader than critics let on — the beneficiaries include veterans, seniors, people with disabilities and residents of disadvantaged rural communities who benefit from increased training opportunities, expanded recruitment efforts, and more access to government benefits.

"Are there things going on under the umbrella of DEI that are good? Yeah, sure," Padfield said. "Can they be saved in some other form? I would hope so."

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