by P.D. Lesko

The U.S. Department of Education has launched investigations into 52 universities in 41 states, accusing the schools of using “racial preferences and stereotypes in education programs and activities.” The University of Michigan is among the 52 universities being investigated. Six universities are being investigated for awarding race-based scholarships. Grand Valley University in Grand Rapids, MI is among that group.

On March 14, 2025, the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office of Civil Rights announced that 45 schools, particularly their graduate programs, violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act by partnering with The PhD Project, a small nonprofit that helps students from underrepresented groups earn doctoral degrees in business. The program focuses on supporting Black, Latino and Native American students.

On March 14, 2025, the PhD Project removed its listings of university members.

A search of the group’s “University Partners” page using the Google Wayback machine showed the deletion of the “University Partner Listing” search. The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor was listed as a member, and the link leads to the Ross School of Business. Likewise, Wayne State University, and Michigan State University are also paying members of the PhD Project.

The PhD Project defended its work. “Our vision is to create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders…” The organization told NPR, “This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who shares that vision.” The non-profit was founded almost three decades ago.

The Association’s membership application requires filling out an online form, and a credit card payment of the required fee. The Association’s 2023 annual report states we have “expanded our
membership criteria to welcome DACA recipients.”

The Association’s 2023 Annual Report says, “The PhD Project empowers our community to help students from historically underrepresented backgrounds earn PhDs so they can inspire and educate the next generation of students and business professionals.”

It’s a somewhat puzzling mission: between 70-90 percent of Ph.D. students in the U.S. fail to find tenure-track teaching employment within three years of graduation. In 2013, only 12.8 percent of new Ph.D.s in science and math found tenure-track jobs. In 2024, the National Science Foundation did a study that revealed only 3.5 percent of Ph.D. graduates in science and engineering were in tenure-track positions three years after graduation. 

During the three decades the PhD Project has been recruiting minorities to complete Ph.D. programs in business, the total number of tenure-track faculty has been declining in U.S. higher education, with a shift towards contingent faculty positions. In 2021, 68 percent of faculty held contingent appointments, compared to 32 percent in tenured or tenure-track positions. In 1990, those percentages were reversed.

It’s the association’s conferences that may have attracted the attention of Dept. of Education officials. The group held two “Annual Conferences” in 2023. The conferences were “invitation only.” In 2023, the group’s tax return stated that “402 minority professionals applied, 332 were invited and 287 attended.”

On its 2023 federal 990 income tax return, the PhD Project Association, the non-profit through which funds are received and expended, the non-profit’s mission was stated thusly: “THE PHD PROJECT’S MISSION IS TO INCREASE THE DIVERSITY OF CORPORATE AMERICA BY INCREASING THE DIVERSITY OF BUSINESS SCHOOL FACULTY. THE ORGANIZATION ATTRACTS BLACK/AFRICAN AMERICANS, LATINX/HISPANIC AMERICANS AND NATIVE AMERICANS TO BUSINESS PHD PROGRAMS AND PROVIDES A NETWORK OF PEER SUPPORT ON THEIR JOURNEY TO BECOMING PROFESSORS.”

In 2023, the PhDProject Association took in $2 million in revenue from fees paid by its 300 college members (doctoral granting institutions pay $5,000 per year), as well as fees paid by corporate sponsors ($1,200-$8,000), and conference attendees. The PhDProject Association spent $3.1 million in 2023 for a net loss of $1.1 million. The $2 million in gross revenue in 2023, was down from $2.8 million in 2021.

The PhDProject Association employs one person, Blane Ruschak, its president. In 2023, Ruschak’s PhD Project salary was $271,000 and paid by accounting behemoth KPMG (Ruschak has a Master’s in Accounting from the University of Hawaii). Ruschak was previously the Dir. of Campus Recruiting for KPMG.

News of the this second investigation comes on the heels of the Dept. of Education’s On March 10, 2025 announcement that the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Office of Civil Rights had sent letters to sixty colleges and universities in the United States in which the institutions’ leaders were warned of potential enforcement actions “if they do not fulfill their obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to protect Jewish students on campus, including uninterrupted access to campus facilities and educational opportunities.” 

In that letter, the Dept. of Education targeted U-M for violations of Title VI, for failing to respond to, investigate and deal with discrimination which has targeted Jewish students, faculty and staff. This is a continuation of an earlier investigation launched by the Biden administration.

A Dept. of Education record shows that in a 2023 report made to the University of Michigan regarding an incident a student had with a student protester “related to the conflict in the Middle East,” that a student participating in a pro-Palestine protest yelled at the student that she was supporting rape and murder, and that she has terrorist friends. The U-M report stated the Jewish student was quite distraught and it was clear that “the incident impacted her greatly.”

The case was closed after OSCR (Office for Student Conflict Resolution) held “restorative circles” for staff, faculty, and students.

Between 2014 and 2024, the University of Michigan spent $236.2 million on DEI.

In Oct. 2024, the New York Times published a lengthy investigative article titled, “The University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong?” That newspaper reported: “A 2021 report from the conservative Heritage Foundation examining the growth of D.E.I. programs across higher education — the only such study that currently exists — found Michigan to have by far the largest D.E.I. bureaucracy of any large public university. Tens of thousands of undergraduates have completed bias training. Thousands of instructors have been trained in inclusive teaching.”

The article was a lengthy, in-depth and data driven examination of a seven-year-old experiment in DEI that has failed to meet many of its stated goals.

In an Oct. 17, 2024 essay posted to LinkedIn, Tabbye Chavous, Vice Provost for Equity & Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer wrote:

“The New York Times published an article on DEI efforts at the University of Michigan (U-M) that was filled with misinformation, disinformation and, sadly, sexism. Before diving in further, I want to state up front that those of us who do DEI work – both at U-M and nationally – welcome thoughtful, critical questions about our work grounded in accurate data and evidence.  Such inquiries make us more reflective, innovative, and effective. This article was not that. While I am not a journalist, as a professor it reminded me of the novice student writing a class paper who starts with a preconceived thesis on a topic, then looks only for the “evidence” that confirms the thesis, ignoring all evidence to the contrary.”

In Dec. 2024, the University announced it would no longer require or use “diversity statements” in faculty hiring, retention or promotion.

The newspaper asked for a comment from officials at the Ross School of Business about its membership in the PhD Project. The request was forwarded to the University’s Office of Public Affairs who replied. “The University of Michigan is dedicated to maintaining a safe and non-discriminatory environment for all members of the university community. We are reviewing the letter and will respond to the Office for Civil Rights.”