DEI’s Demise: The Story of Dr. Marisol Quintanilla

Tenure vote demonstrates clear hypocrisy on “inclusion”

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By Kendall Williams

April 8, 2025

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs enjoyed sweeping momentum on college campuses over the past decade before being dampened by two fairly recent decisions coming out of Washington, D.C. In the first, the Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC that affirmative action programs that take race into admissions considerations are unconstitutional. The other came in the form of an executive order from President Trump, titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” This action gave colleges and universities a choice: eliminate DEI programs, or lose federal funding. 

 

While DEI programs may seem innocuous, advertised as promoting an environment welcoming to all, they can have the opposite effect in practice. 

 

Take Michigan State University (MSU), for example. MSU hired over 140 employees dedicated to analyzing and implementing 222 different DEI initiatives. Despite President Trump’s executive order, the University maintains a DEI website. The website’s “About” page promotes “lead[ing] and coordinat[ing] a range of initiatives and programs that aim to increase diversity, ensure equity, promote inclusion and advance outreach and engagement across the institution.”

 

It is rather ironic that MSU claims to value diversity, equity, and inclusion, given recent events involving Dr. Marisol Quintanilla, an assistant professor and extension nematologist in the Department of Entomology. She has served in this role since 2017, having returned to the institution where she earned both her master of science and doctorate. While a student, she also worked as a research and teaching assistant in the Department of Entomology. Through the years, she has published numerous pieces of scholarship on nematodes. Truly, she is an expert in her field. A dedicated Spartan, Quintanilla has served the University well.

 

She is now eligible for tenure. As per the University’s website, reappointment with tenure requires a showing of 

 

sustained, outstanding achievements in scholarship, teaching, and service across the mission, consistent with performance levels expected at peer universities. The record should provide a basis in actual performance for predicting capacity to become an expert of national and/or international stature and long-term, high-quality professional achievement and University service.

 

By all counts, Quintanilla meets the mark. Yet, the tenure approval process has not gone smoothly for her, likely due to her viewpoints. 

 

The approval process for tenure at Michigan State commences with a vote from the faculty member’s department. Citing “poor collegiality”––a common viewpoint discrimination tactic to which FIRE has called attention––the Department of Entomology voted against Quintanilla in the fall of 2024. Offering no support for their reasoning, it seems more likely that the Department punished Quintanilla for her politics, namely, her willingness to speak out on identity politics, Title IX, and gender theory.

 

Following the Department’s unsubstantiated denial, the Dean of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Matthew Daum, reversed the decision, passing it up for the Provost’s approval. Next, the Provost must confer with the President, who happens to be former UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz. UNC AFSA wrote a letter to President Guskiewicz and Provost Jeitschko, encouraging them to support Quintanilla.

 

Once the Provost makes a determination, relying in part on the President’s recommendation, the Board of Trustees has the final say. 

 

The fact that the fate of Dr. Quintanilla––an accomplished, dedicated, courageous faculty member with no record of poor work performance––lies in the hands of others who feel authorized to deny her tenure due to differing viewpoints shows that DEI has failed.

 

What started as a means of including and appreciating differences has had the opposite outcome. Dr. Quintanilla’s viewpoints should be celebrated as strengthening the University as a forum for discussion and debate. Instead, she is left wondering whether her differences will be the reason her career suffers. Hopefully, the Provost and the Board of Trustees will follow the Dean’s recommendation and make the right decision. A serious commitment to the values of diversity, equity, inclusion, and academic excellence would demand it. 

 

Kendall Williams is an attorney and a UNC AFSA board member. She graduated from UNC in 2020 with a degree in political science and American studies and earned her J.D. from the UNC School of Law in 2023.

LinkedIn: @Kendall Williams