Opponents of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs scored a major victory this month in North Carolina, with the state's flagship public university preemptively moving funds away from DEI due to fears of a ban, indicating that dangers to the policies are growing even beyond conservative strongholds.
Red states including Texas and Florida have gone all in banning DEI at public colleges, but experts fear the effects on school culture and loss of jobs as the battleground map expands.
“People misunderstand DEI to be just about LGBTQ students and students of color, but it's also about low-income students, students with disabilities, veteran students and many, many, many other students who make colleges diverse,” said Shaun Harper, a professor of education, business, and public policy at the University of Southern California.
“It's really clear to me that they didn't think through the implications and the impact that those bans would have on the multitude of student populations that make campuses diversity,” Harper added.
In Texas, hundreds of jobs have been cut after the law banning DEI programs took effect, with the University of Texas system alone losing 300 part- and full-time positions. More than a dozen jobs were lost at the University of Florida after it disbanded its DEI office.
"You may not like the law, but it is the law,” University of Texas Systems Chancellor James Milliken said.
But North Carolina is significantly more purple: It has a Democratic governor, and the Biden campaign has indicated that in November it will try to flip the state, which twice voted for former President Trump.
Nevertheless, last week the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees voted to divert $2.3 million in DEI funding to safety measures, potentially killing the school's DEI program.
Chapel Hill budget Chair Dave Boliek said the university is trying to "set the tone" before the state legislature gets involved.
“We’re going ahead and, you know, sort of taking a leadership role in this. That’s the way I view it,” Boliek said, according to The Associated Press.
Republicans were thrilled with the move.
"Good for the UNC-Chapel Hill board for recognizing common sense and pushing back against the woke mob. Now is the time to prioritize campus safety, not virtue signalling," said Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) after the vote was announced.
Schools across the country are increasingly finding themselves in a tough spot legally as they seek to balance their commitments to diversity with shifting state laws.
“Every single institution is going to be sitting in a very context-specific world,” said Heidi Tseu, the assistant vice president on national engagement for the American Council on Education. “Every institution is sitting in a community and sitting with its own relationship to its state government, and all the different stakeholders that create that sort of micro political climate. And so, I don't think there is [a] one-size-fits-all approach to how any of this is being handled.”
The University of Wyoming, for example, has eliminated its DEI offices in response to state legislation but says “it is committed to maintaining services to students that, in some cases, have existed for decades.” Among the policies that won’t change at the school are nondiscrimination rules and increased access programs for certain groups such as veterans and Pell Grant recipients.
“They're quietly trying to work with what they have,” Tseu said.
“And then you have other jurisdictions that aren't impacted yet, but you can tell the chilling effect, some of this sort of public narrative around DEI that's changed in the last couple years,” she added.
Liberal and Democratic-run states have steadfastly opposed efforts to nix DEI programs, though in some cases, even they have come out against diversity statements faculty are required to sign when they are hired.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a top school that sits in a solidly blue state, announced this month it will no longer require prospective faculty members to sign on to a diversity statement, saying that while the university wants an inclusive environment, it shouldn't be built on “compelled statements” that “impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work.”
The Washington Post editorial board also recently came out against such diversity statements, saying they “too often led to self-censorship and ideological policing.”
However, the moves in conservative states to take away whole programs could run into federal trouble.
“These conservative state legislators that are banning DEI ... I don't think they were thinking about the federal compliance burden that this is going to place on colleges and universities, because, ultimately, like the people who were doing all the work of doing the investigations and all the stuff, right, [...] those people's jobs no longer exist. Who's going to do all of that?” Harper said.
Janet Stovall, global head of DEI at the NeuroLeadership Institute, says colleges are going to “find legitimate ways” around the DEI bans.
Schools will “need to find a way to talk about what they are living by,” Stovall said, adding that universities are “going to hurt” if they do not figure out how to work around the laws.
NFL legend and University of Florida alumnus Emmitt Smith joined the debate this week, saying in an interview with USA Today that the state had "conformed to the political pressures of today’s time," while encouraging students to be sure to chose "open-minded" schools for their higher education.
"When I see them destroying DEI for the sake of politics … it’s not even common sense," Smith said.
