Last week, Mom asked what all this “DEI stuff” meant. This comes after her confusion about CRT, indoctrination and “woke.”

After I answered “diversity, equity and inclusion,” she simply turned back to the dinner table to talk about the next cruise she was going on.

All the fringe talk might finally be reaching the crying wolf stage of inciting fear and division. Maybe.

The term “diversity, equity and inclusion,” called DEI for short, is the latest in the string of boogeyman scare tactics. Businesses embraced efforts to improve their workplace diversity and inclusion beginning in the 1960s due to changing attitudes on civil rights.

Today, nearly every international and national corporation has a DEI mission statement and employees dedicated to that work. It makes good business sense to broaden perspectives with every employee feeling valued.

DEI is not a euphemism for race, affirmative action or critical race theory. It is not a liberal indoctrination to make white people feel shame. It is neither Marxism nor socialism.

It is a commitment to having a diverse workplace or student body and creating a welcoming environment by knocking down barriers that keep people from being successful.

Last month, State Superintendent Ryan Walters asked the state regents for higher education to provide 10 years’ worth of information from all state colleges and universities about every dollar and material dedicated to DEI. He gave a one-week deadline.

This was a nearly identical request to one Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made to his state’s universities last month. Nothing is really new. It’s all packaged from national conservative think tanks and provocateurs. The answers really don’t matter, either; it’s just a ploy to generate outrage.

Regardless, the Oklahoma universities and colleges responded with spreadsheets listing anything that could be considered DEI-related. Turns out that less than one-tenth of 1% of the state’s higher education budget went to these programs.

For some, that low investment is still too much. They point to the $10.2 million in DEI activities for this year, of which the state contributed $3.7 million.

Get past the acronym and look at what DEI involves in higher education — a wide range of services meant to get more Oklahomans in college and to the graduation line. Those Oklahomans include veterans, first-generation college students, students with disabilities, single mothers, low-income families, foster kids and students who are Black, Hispanic and citizens of Indigenous tribes.

That’s a good thing.

Oklahoma needs a more educated workforce. In the next five years, two-thirds of the top 100 critical professions will require a college degree, but only about 26% of Oklahoma residents have a bachelor’s degree — below the national average of 33%. And Oklahoma loses about 25% of its college graduates, mostly to Texas.

DEI staffers at colleges and universities are often academic advisers, mentors, counselors and event planners who help students finish school and find jobs upon graduation.

Critics of DEI need to say what they would cut. Is it just the programs for students in racial or ethnic minorities? Or are they fine withdrawing support for veterans, single parents and poor students, too?

Here is a snapshot of some Oklahoma DEI higher education expenses:

Carl Albert State College spent $2,500 a year on a coordinator to work with students with disabilities.

Connors State College received about five years of federal grants for a campus support center, online courses and museum, including a language repository for Native American students. It also hired a project director to increase enrollment of nursing students to work in areas with a high percentage of Indigenous residents and implemented a program for tutoring and advising first-generation students.

Eastern Oklahoma State College has spent about $130,000 in the past decade on a Denmark foreign exchange program.

Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College received federal grants to assist first-generation college students (employees earn from $19,240 to $52,000) and another grant for a coordinator to work with students who are veterans ($14,989 last year).

Northeastern State University offers upper-division anthropology and sociology courses in racial and cultural minorities, an English course in women’s and gender studies, and an elementary education class focusing on trauma-informed instruction.

Northern Oklahoma College spent $100 in 2016 from a foundation grant for a Black History Month speaker and $840 through private fundraisers in 2021 for a field trip to Tulsa’s Greenwood Rising history center for the student President’s Leadership Class.

Northwestern Oklahoma State University will spend $850 from endowed funds in March for a speech titled “The struggles Native American students deal with when going to university.” The speaker is a Ponca tribal citizen who is a retired Title IX officer and Indian Education director from an area school district.

Oklahoma City Community College spent about $1,000 in 2021 on a mental health awareness day and Juneteenth planning and about $1,000 this year on a workshop about inclusive terms regarding sexuality and sexual orientation and academic life coaching for various students.

Panhandle State University has a coordinator for international students who earns $14,546 this year.

Redlands Community College has a student LGBTQ club that receives no money.

Rogers State University’s highest DEI investment was $1,650 in 2021 for an international student flag ceremony.

Rose State College has a “Success, Inclusion, Cultural and Diversity Affairs” office with a budget of about $276,000.

Southwestern Oklahoma State University has a laptop checkout service for students who are unable to afford a computer.

Tulsa Community College has classes about children with special needs, deaf culture and history, wellness programs, and library programming over topics such as the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Muscogee tribal storytelling and Indigenous sovereignty. Its DEI staff handles tasks including financial aid, academic advisement, enrollment, assessments, disability access, translation services, counseling and wellness. In all, the cost is about $656,000 this year.

The University of Central Oklahoma has a DEI office for mentorship, academic advisement and retention, along with hosting programs such as art exhibits, panels and lectures on topics such as immigration, women’s rights, classism, races and gender. It will cost about $519,000 this year.

Most of the DEI work cited in the response is at the state’s flagship universities, Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma.

Each has a multicultural or DEI office with budgets of $1.3 million, along with programs for veterans, students with disabilities, first-generation collegegoers and resources for students who are Native American, Black, Hispanic, Asian, LGBTQ+ and women.

None of these is outrageous. If anything, the state needs to double down on recruitment and retention of college students to attract high-paying businesses and spur entrepreneurial growth.

Our nation and state are diverse and growing more so. Oklahoma ranks high in challenges that often keep people from college — poverty, teen births, foster care, Adverse Childhood Experiences and mental health needs, just to name a few.

These programs tap into potential student populations that once were ignored and implement supports to get them to graduation. College degrees are often the best intervention to improving a person’s life trajectory.

To argue against DEI is to promote exclusionary practices that continue to marginalize and create barriers for others. That way of thinking stunts an economy, puts our students at a disadvantage and encourages division.

Oklahoma cannot afford to eliminate improvements in college graduation rates.

Don’t believe the rhetoric; just look at what the DEI programs really do.