DEI acronym has become a punching bag.

It's unclear what effects, threats of cutoff in Federal funding programs will have on diversity programs in colleges of Washington State.

Here in Bellingham, WWU has some programs aimed at folks that could be considered on the margins of mainstream society, for instance myself as a gay person. Most funding is from state or other sources, but some federal funds are in question, I'd guess.

I think many of these programs are useful though I tend to be fairly critical of much of the anger, seen in the news, related to lack of total fairness in society; especially through history.

Society has had a history of discrimination, but things do improve. Meanwhile there is quite a bit of debate over this leading to push back from some folks who would like to turn back the clock to the way things were in past decades.

I still think most of these diversity programs are useful, going forward.

DEI gets criticism, but it's basically seems like just a more recent acronym for things that society has been progressing toward all along. Slowing down the rhetoric, DEI stands for diversity equity and inclusion.

I remember (actually Google AI helped me here). This was in the news years ago.

In a 1978 case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Supreme Court ruled that colleges could consider race as one of several factors in admissions, but not as a quota. The ruling legalized affirmative action, but prohibited racial quotas.