U-M ends ties with program that helped diversify PhDs, after federal threat

U-M enters into agreement with federal government to end partnership with the PhD Project, a nonprofit working to diversify US business school faculties
U-M housed a similar program, Minority Summer Institute. The founders of the PhD Project continued the institute’s mission
A U-M professor who was a student leader in U-M’s institute said it’s painful to see the university back away from the effort; another professor said it was time to end the relationship

The University of Michigan was the site of a program in the 1990s that became a model for the PhD Project, a national effort to increase the number of minority business faculty members at universities across the country.

Decades later, U-M has agreed with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights to no longer be a part of it.

U-M reached an agreement with the federal government, announced last week, to end its longstanding partnership with the PhD Project, which has supported the earning of business PhDs by people from historically underrepresented groups in America. Thirty other colleges and universities also agreed to end their partnerships with the nonprofit organization.

“We were the leaders and best,” said U-M professor David B. Wooten, who was a student leader in U-M’s Minority Summer Institute while earning his PhD and a member of the PhD Project’s Hall of Fame. “It does hurt to see us take a knee on this.”

David Wooten, University of Michigan Alfred L. Edwards Collegiate Professor, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor & Professor of Marketing. (Courtesy of David Wooten)

U-M’s agreement with the federal government to end its partnership with the PhD project is the latest impact to the state’s largest university of President Donald Trump’s efforts to end diversity, equity and inclusion in government amid threats of federal funding cuts.

Last year, U-M ended its 8-year, multimillion-dollar DEI project. The university also stopped providing gender-affirming care for minors at Michigan Medicine under pressure from Trump, who calls it “gender ideology extremism.”

“I’m disappointed but not fully surprised,” Wooten said of UM’s agreement with the government to end the partnership with the PhD project.

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The federal government’s announcement of the agreement with U-M and other universities came almost a year after the Education Department announced an investigation into “racial preferences” in academic opportunities or scholarships.

The PhD Project began in 1994, after foundation and business leaders noticed the lack of diversity in the corporate world. Its mission is “to expand the pool of workplace talent by developing business school faculty who encourage, mentor, and support tomorrow’s leaders,” according to the organization’s website.

It hosts an annual conference that exposes prospective candidates to the path of earning a PhD along with opportunities to meet doctoral students, professors and partner organizations. It also connects students with scholarships and other ways to cover costs. The number of PhD business candidates among Black, Hispanic and Native Americans has grown sixfold from 294 in 1994 when the project was founded to over 1,700 in 2023, according to the organization’s latest annual report.

How it started

U-M was a pioneer in a program to help minority candidates earn their doctorate degrees. Years before the launch of the PhD Project, the University of Michigan was home to the Minority Summer Institute, which offered a six-week summer program from 1990-93 for prospective minority PhD students to take classes, attend seminars, meet minority faculty and explore the journey to an academic career.

Students who went through the Minority Summer Institute said it “truly changed my life,” according to a 2024 book commemorating a century of stories of U-M’s Ross School of Business, penned by former U-M business Prof. and institute director George Siedel.

Around the same time, leaders at KPMG Peat Marwick Foundation and Citibank launched a series of meetings with other corporate and academic leaders to address diversifying business school faculties. The discussions were wide-ranging but included examining the strategy of the Minority Summer Institute before the establishment of the PhD Project.

‘Trump effect in action’

In the announcement, the Office for Civil Rights said the PhD Project is “an organization which provides doctoral students with insights into obtaining a PhD, but unlawfully limits eligibility based on race of the participants.”

U-M, along with institutions such as Ohio State University, University of California- Berkeley and University of Chicago, violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by “partnering with an organization that discriminates on the basis of race,” the federal government’s announcement said.

US Education Secretary Linda McMahon sits on stage and speaks into a microphone while surrounded by an American flag and red, white and blue balloons. — Education Secretary Linda McMahon says the action could pave the way to ‘a future where we reject judging individuals by the color of their skin and once again embrace the principles of merit, excellence, and opportunity.’ (Chris Schanz for Bridge Michigan)

“This is the Trump effect in action: institutions of higher education are agreeing to cut ties with discriminatory organizations, recommitting themselves to abiding by federal law, and restoring equality of opportunity on campuses across the nation,” said US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

“We are hopeful that other institutions with similarly discriminatory practices will follow suit, paving the way for a future where we reject judging individuals by the color of their skin and once again embrace the principles of merit, excellence, and opportunity.”

U-M spokesperson Kay Jarvis offered one statement in response to numerous questions, including how many PhD candidates graduated from U-M as a result of the partnership.

“The Ross School of Business has not been a member of the PhD Project since March 2025,” Jarvis said via email.

One U-M faculty member expressed outrage about the university severing ties with the program.

“Any time the University of Michigan collaborates with the Trump administration is a day of shame,” said Silke-Maria Weineck, U-M’s Grace Lee Boggs Collegiate Professor of Comparative Literature and German Studies.

“The Trump administration’s policies are designed to roll back what little progress we have made in creating a more equitable institution. They are driven by racism, pure and simple. Every time we collaborate with them is a day of shame.”

Former U-M Flint faculty member Mark Perry took the opposite stance, calling the PhD Project an organization with “a 30+ year history of blatant and ongoing racial discrimination.”

Former University of Michigan professor Mark J. Perry. (Melissa Lyttle for Bridge Michigan)

“It’s unfortunate and embarrassing that the University of Michigan has been affiliated with a racist organization and appeared as a ‘Supporting University’ on its websites for more than a quarter century, since at least 2001,” said Perry, a vocal advocate fighting diversity, equity and inclusion programs in academia.

“U-M’s partnership with the PhD Project could accurately be described as a ‘joint venture in illegal discrimination,’ and it’s long overdue for the university to end its affiliation with a tarnished organization that discriminated on the basis of race for many decades in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

The PhD Project sent a statement via email that said the organization was founded “with the goal of providing more role models in the front of business classrooms and this remains our goal today.”

“The PhD Project remains focused on our mission,” the statement said in part. “Our vision is to create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders who are committed to excellence and to each other, through networking, mentorship, and unique events.”

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