DEI offices are closing. Universities are eliminating positions. The language that dominated higher education after 2020 appears to be retreating, but Professor Stanley Ridgley believes Americans should be very careful about assuming the movement itself has disappeared.
Ridgley is a Clinical Professor of Management at Drexel University, former military intelligence officer and author of DEI Exposed: How the Biggest Con of the Century Almost Toppled Higher Education. As DEI expanded across American universities, he decided to investigate it from inside academia. He attended DEI workshops, studied the academic literature and joined the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education to better understand the movement on its own terms.
What he found led him into an investigation of the money, consultants, administrative structures and academic theories supporting DEI, along with concepts students were being taught about race, privilege, victimhood and identity.
Some of the most revealing discoveries came when Ridgley traced ideas that had become accepted within universities back to their origins. His research raises uncomfortable questions about how claims acquire academic legitimacy and why institutions supposedly committed to intellectual rigor embraced ideas he argues were never subjected to the same standards of evidence.
Dr. Sherri Tenpenny also asks Ridgley what parents should know before sending a child to college. His answer goes beyond choosing the right university. He explains why students should understand what they are being asked to disclose during certain campus exercises and why the language surrounding these programs matters.
Now that DEI is under legal and political pressure, Ridgley says another shift is underway. Programs can disappear, offices can be renamed and familiar ideas can return under terminology most people would never associate with DEI.
If you thought the DEI debate was ending, Professor Ridgley offers a compelling reason to look again.
Important Links:
Book: DEI Exposed: How the Biggest Con of the Century Almost Toppled Higher Education
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Professor Ridgley’s research demonstrates why it is worth looking beyond reassuring labels and asking where an idea came from, what evidence supports it and how it is being applied.
That approach to education is also central to Tenpenny Prime. Our members have access to deeper educational content and opportunities to hear directly from experts through our Ask the Expert events, giving people the time and information to investigate important subjects beyond a headline or a short interview.
The goal is to become better informed before accepting someone else’s conclusions, especially when those conclusions can influence your family, your health or your freedom. Become a Tenpenny Prime member at Primemembership.DrTenpenny.com
Brutal Minds
Professor Ridgley continues his research at BrutalMinds.com, where he collects his writing about higher education, DEI and ideological movements within academia. During our conversation, he points listeners there for additional documentation, including his research into universities using concepts associated with “white supremacy culture.”
For anyone who wants to continue following the evidence after hearing our conversation and reading the book, his website provides another place to examine the material he has collected.
