UW-Madison Chief Diversity Officer Removed From Position

LaVar Charleston's removal comes amid the Trump Administration's crackdown on DEI programs nationwide

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has removed LaVar Charleston, the school’s former chief diversity officer, from his post over concerns about his leadership.

Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin and Provost Charles Isbell, Jr. announced that UW “initiated a leadership change in the Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement” after “an ongoing internal review of DDEEA’s finances has revealed areas of concern about financial operations and fiscal judgments in the division.”

“On Jan. 7, the unit’s leadership was notified that fiscal authority of DDEEA would be shifting to the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration.”

Charleston will stay employed by the university as a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis in the School of Education.

The DDEA will continue to operate under the leadership of Isbell and “there should be no direct impact on students in DDEEA programs.”

Charleston has previously faced controversy over several instances of plagiarism in his academic work.

Patrick McIlheran, policy chief at the Badger Institute, told The Madison Federalist, “We already know from news stories last spring that Charleston was at the least sloppy on his academic work. Now the university says he can’t be trusted to handle money.”

“But who’s going to make the university prove it can be trusted to treat students fairly? Every dollar that UW-Madison spends on this administrative office — with 103 people on its staff — is money not going to educate students. Instead, it’s aimed at getting students to think of themselves as divided by race and ethnicity.”

He continued, “The whole bureaucracy Charleston headed should be disbanded. Forget ‘equity’ and other discrimination: UW should instead simply treat students equally and fairly, whatever their race or background.”

“If UW meant to embrace diversity, instead of just trying to pit groups of students against one another, it would pay some attention to offering diverse perspectives in classrooms. Instead, there is practical unanimity on politics, as the very few faculty with a conservative perspective openly testify.”

The Trump Administration has begun to challenge DEI programs at government agencies and institutions of higher education.

Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty attorney Daniel Lennington tweeted, “The Trump Administration is going to open investigations into universities with endowments over $1B that still run DEI programs. UW-Madison fits the bill: it runs "inclusive excellence" (DEI) & dozens of race-based programs that discriminate against students based on race.”

This story has been updated to include comment from Patrick McIlheran.