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Legislature Continues Audit of State DEI Programs
Wisconsin lawmakers are not done asking questions about diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Wisconsin and inside state government.
The heads of the legislature’s Joint Audit Committee on Wednesday announced they will hold formal hearings into the recent DEI audits of both the UW system, and the Department of Administration.
“These new reports show millions of dollars spent to propagate hateful rhetoric to divide Wisconsinites in our halls of government and universities. The agencies and colleges pushing these DEI initiatives need to be held accountable," Sen. Eric Wimberger, R-Oconto, and Rep. Bob Wittke, R-Caledonia, said in a statement.
The audits detail, as best they could, millions of dollars in spending on DEI initiatives that ended with questionable results.
Specifically, the Legislative Audit Bureau said it couldn’t provide solid numbers on DEI spending at either the state level or at UW campuses because managers at both didn’t properly track what was, and was not covered by DEI.
“None of the agencies tracked the amounts they spent specifically on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We used the available information to estimate four types of costs that agencies incurred,” the auditors wrote. “Because some amounts overlap multiple types of costs, the amounts we estimated cannot be summed.”
Still auditors were able to find at least $40 million in DEI spending at the University of Wisconsin for the 2023-2024 budget year on DEI. That includes $12.5 million in salaries for 170 jobs.
Auditors reported another $2.2 million on salary costs for 47 DEI positions inside state government. The auditors also found that state employees sat through nearly 5,000 hours of DEI training in 2023 and 2024.
The Legislative Audit Committee asked for the audits last May. The reports on DEI cover just one year in both the Evers Administration and at the UW.
Neither Wimberger or Wittke is saying who all will be called to testify at the hearing that is scheduled for next Wednesday at the Capitol.
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