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Audit Finds No Fiscal Mismanagement at BU’s Antiracist Research Center

The university launched an investigation after half the staff of Ibram X. Kendi’s center were laid off.

Six weeks after the launch of an inquiry into author Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University—which let go of about 50 percent of staffers in a recent restructuring—school officials said the internal audit found no problems with how the group’s grant finances were managed. The layoffs raised questions as to why CAR had not conducted more research with its funding of over $50 million. In a statement after the audit, Kendi said, “We sought to put in place a new financially sustainable structure that will support CAR’s mission for the long term” and called the layoffs “the hardest decision of my career.” Instead of faculty conducting CAR’s research, fellows will do their own projects while in residence at BU for nine months. The school will now move on to assessing the center’s reporting process to those who offered research grants and its work culture. In September, Saida Grundy, the former assistant director of narrative, told The Boston Globe that CAR’s lack of structure and “exploitative” culture led to long work hours.