DEI is unraveling at our universities. Good riddance to a failed and divisive bureaucracy.

Former President Donald Trump and first son Hunter Biden may be stealing the headlines now, but there’s something else that deserves your attention: the continued antisemitic – and increasingly violent – incidents at U.S. universities.

Last week, a mob of pro-Palestinian students at Stanford University “barricaded” themselves inside the school president’s office. The occupation led to the injury of a police officer and extensive damage to the building. 

Similar instances have occurred across the country in recent weeks, with other buildings occupied and vandalized and Palestinian sympathizers blocking fellow students and professors – including Jewish ones – from getting to their classrooms. 

This disturbing behavior has wreaked havoc on campuses since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack against Israel ‒ and Israel's subsequent and ongoing retaliation in its defense. 

It’s worth questioning what is motivating so many young people to embrace such blatant antisemitism – earning them the praise of actual terrorists. 

One of the common denominators seems to be the ideology of “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) that has become increasingly entrenched in higher education. 

These ugly protests have shed light on what is going on at our U.S. campuses – and what college students have been learning. 

Luckily, states legislatures and governors are pushing back against DEI. And some universities are even revisiting DEI policies on their own accord. 

This Michigan university admits DEI isn't working 

I was pleasantly surprised recently when I read an op-ed by the president and three faculty at a public university in Michigan admitting that diversity, equity and inclusion programs have not lived up to the hype – and may have directly contributed to the antisemitism witnessed on so many campuses. 

“Conceptions of DEI that prioritize some identities over others end up promoting simplistic and sometimes harmful approaches to complex social problems,” wrote Oakland University President Ora Pescovitz and the faculty leaders. “Such identity-based accounts of diversity attempt to divide people into binary categories of racist versus anti-racist, white versus non-white, oppressor versus oppressed or colonizer versus colonized.”

While they would rather "mend not end" DEI, what the university leaders describe gets to the heart of what is happening on college campuses.

To those who have paid close attention to DEI’s growth on the quad, the anti-Israel sentiments on U.S. campuses aren’t surprising.

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Timothy Minella, senior fellow at the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute, says the antisemitism on display is directly correlated to the adoption of this flawed diversity agenda. 

“Especially the recent encampments at several prominent universities, to me they demonstrate the logical end point of this ideology, that divides the world into the oppressed and the oppressors,” Minella told me recently.“And I think we see that play out in these anti-Israel protests, where through this very flawed analysis, Jews become oppressors because they are allegedly in close proximity to so-called whiteness.”

States ‒ and some schools ‒ are kissing DEI goodbye

Minella and the Goldwater Institute are helping lead this rollback of DEI at the state level. And they’re getting results.

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Since last year, 85 bills combating DEI have been introduced, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. So far, at least 14 have become law, and many others are close to the finish line.

These bills target DEI in different ways, from seeking to eliminate the programs and departments altogether to specifically banning diversity statements in hiring and admissions and required courses and instruction. 

Florida and Texas are the largest states to lead the charge against these programs, but other states include North Carolina, North Dakota, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Alabama.

Some universities are opting to drop DEI requirements on their own. For instance, last week, Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences announced it will no longer require “diversity, inclusion, and belonging” statements for faculty hiring. 

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Similarly, last month, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said it would end the policy entirely.

That’s progress, and a win for free speech. Compelling future faculty or students to profess adherence to a set of controversial beliefs goes against the very nature of higher education. 

That’s true of DEI policies in general, as they prioritize groups and not the individual.

“I think forcing people into these boxes is antithetical to what higher education is supposed to be about, which is the free exchange of ideas,” Minella said. “I do think it’s harmful to the educational purpose of universities.”

As the rise of campus antisemitism has demonstrated, the sooner U.S. universities can extricate themselves from this dangerous bureaucracy, the better. 

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques.