State legislatures push more college DEI office closures
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Within a week, the universities of Nebraska-Lincoln, Kentucky and North Carolina Charlotte announced they'd disband diversity and inclusion offices as students begin to return to campuses for the fall semester.
Why it matters: These are among the latest of dozens of universities to close such offices or institute other anti-DEI measures — often pushed to do so by state legislation.
State of play: State legislatures have used various tactics from outright bans to withholding funds to mandate a conservative agenda.
- Some schools, like the University of Missouri in July, disbanded DEI offices preemptively.
- DEI centers were also closed this summer at Auburn University and the University of North Carolina Wilmington.
By the numbers: Nearly 50 schools across the country have closed diversity-focused offices or multicultural resource centers, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education tracker.
- About a dozen others renamed DEI offices or merged them with other departments.
The intrigue: In some of these cases, DEI work is being delegated to other offices like housing, health or student affairs, said Sean Edmund Rogers, dean of the University of Rhode Island's college of business.
- "Universities take cues from one another," Rogers said.
Context: Backlash against DEI in corporations and education followed its boom after the escalation of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
- Last year, the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action at colleges, a decision that was expected to decrease diversity in some institutions.
- Another Supreme Court decision this year complicated the DEI landscape further, allowing activists to challenge programs that they view as discriminatory.
Zoom in: Diversity offices are often focused on making campus communities accessible and welcoming to students of color, LGBTQ+ students and students with disabilities.
- "What we're trying to do is create a community where students feel like they belong and where they can thrive and where they don't run up against visible or invisible barriers to success," Rogers said.
Yes, but: Elisa Glick, a diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging consultant, said DEI critics frame it as a form of bias but that is a misconception.
- Glick, also a professor emerita at the University of Missouri, worked in the university's DEI office as a faculty fellow.
- "Students' feelings of social belonging are strongly correlated to their ability to learn," she said.
- "Students feeling excluded, marginalized on campus or in a classroom learning environment is a significant barrier to student learning," Glick added.
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