Caltech Renames Top Diversity Official While Keeping DEI Office Intact
The California Institute of Technology has changed the title of its top diversity official but kept the office she oversees intact, the latest example of how institutions are attempting to save their diversity programs by making largely cosmetic changes.
Caltech announced last week that Lindsey Malcom-Piqueux, the university's assistant vice president for diversity, equity, inclusion, and assessment, was receiving a "promotion" to associate vice president for campus climate, engagement, and success. Though the new title does not mention DEI, Malcom-Piqueux will continue to oversee Caltech's Center for Inclusion and Diversity, the school's central DEI office, according to a university-wide email from Caltech president Thomas Rosenbaum.
"In this expanded capacity, Lindsey will be responsible for promoting engagement, progression, and personal and professional success within the Caltech community," Rosenbaum wrote on March 31. He added that she would be "responsible" for the diversity center as well as the Office of Institutional Research.
The Center for Inclusion and Diversity provides "educational workshops and programming for all to learn, connect, and improve their practice and approach to doing great science," a Caltech webpage states. "Our programming and initiatives not only play a role in expanding human knowledge, but they promote identity exploration, community-building, and networking."
The title change came two weeks after NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is administered by Caltech, performed a similar bait-and-switch with its own chief diversity officer, Neela Rajendra, who has described "extreme deadline[s]" as an obstacle to "inclusion." Though the lab had laid off 900 workers due to budget cuts and begun taking down webpages related to DEI, it said that Rajendra would stay on as "Chief of the Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success."
That announcement followed a string of similar title tweaks at other universities. In February, for example, the University of Michigan School of Nursing renamed its DEI office the office of "community culture."
Malcom-Piqueux's new role underscores how even a school like Caltech—long considered one of the most meritocratic and least "woke" universities in the country—is feeling the heat from the Trump administration's assault on DEI programs in higher education. The diversity center says on its website that all "programming, support structures, and campus organizations are open to anyone in the campus community," a disclaimer that appears designed to immunize the school from charges of race discrimination.
At the same time, many of Caltech's diversity programs are clearly crafted with specific groups in mind. The Black Ladies Association of Caltech, for example, "provides networking and professional development opportunities for African-American women in STEM and their allies."
According to Rosenbaum's email, Malcom-Piqueux's job will be to "bolster" those sorts of opportunities for all students. "Caltech will not remain competitive in the long term without a steadfast commitment to inclusive excellence," Rosenbaum said.
Caltech declined to comment on why it changed Malcom-Piqueux's title.
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