In yet another victory in the battle to dismantle discriminatory “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) initiatives at public colleges and universities, the University of Kentucky (UK) last week announced the closure of its DEI programs. The announcement came amid significant public scrutiny over the state’s higher education bureaucrats, weeks after a Goldwater Institute report revealed how they mandate racial discrimination.
Across the country, DEI is crumbling as citizens recognize the incompatibility of these programs with the mission of public universities. These successes demonstrate the necessity of adopting targeted policies that will end the campus DEI regime for good.
While announcing the disbanding of the DEI office at UK, President Eli Capilouto also stated that UK will no longer require DEI training and will not force would-be students or faculty to submit mandatory DEI statements. Mandatory DEI training promotes the discriminatory ideology behind DEI, which divides people into “oppressors” and “oppressed,” calling for the “oppressors” to renounce their “white privilege” and become “allies” for “transformative justice.” In some cases, DEI training programs require participants to endorse these discriminatory concepts by successfully completing a test following the training. DEI statements likewise coerce job applicants and prospective students to affirm the DEI regime’s obsession with identity categories and to commit to an activist program of dismantling purportedly oppressive social structures.
These long overdue decisions by UK, however, don’t go nearly far enough.
Although the closure of the DEI office is welcome news, UK is transferring staff in the office to other departments instead of eliminating their positions. This action raises the possibility that UK will continue discriminatory DEI programs in several offices across campus rather than a single DEI office.
And furthermore, despite UK’s announcement that it would end DEI programs, some course syllabi for the fall 2024 semester still contain statements that endorse DEI ideology and direct students to report “bias incidents” to an online reporting form. These “bias reporting systems” are common throughout American universities. Using this form, a student could report a professor for assigning a book that the student finds offensive. A student could report a classmate for stating an unpopular opinion in a class discussion. UK claims that its bias reporting system no longer exists, but the system’s continued presence in course syllabi nonetheless chills free expression at Kentucky’s flagship university. Statements that promise action against DEI programs mean nothing when students continue to be bombarded with DEI messaging at every turn, even in course syllabi.
The state’s policymakers cannot simply trust public statements from universities that disavow DEI. To defeat DEI for good, state legislators need to adopt targeted policies that prohibit specific DEI activities, rather than simply banning offices labeled with DEI terms. State policymakers should look to Goldwater’s Abolish DEI Bureaucracies reform, which plainly defines the DEI activities that are disallowed under the legislation. Legislators should also consider Goldwater’s Freedom from Indoctrination Act, which prohibits requiring students to take academically unserious DEI courses as a condition of graduation. Moreover, they should enact Goldwater’s Protecting Students from Bias Reporting Systems law, which prohibits public universities and community colleges from operating any such system that chills student speech.
Such legislation is necessary because DEI has permeated the entire system of higher education in Kentucky. Last month, Goldwater released a report on the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, an oversight board that requires public institutions to adopt racial and ethnic quotas for student enrollment and for faculty and staff. The council also encourages institutions to adopt other DEI programs, such as DEI courses and DEI interview questions in hiring. If institutions do not practice the tenets of DEI to the council’s satisfaction, the council can prevent institutions from establishing new academic programs to serve students. Kentucky legislators must strip this small unelected body of the power to force DEI down institutions’ throats.
Policymakers cannot be content with press releases from public institutions that are conveniently claiming to abandon DEI at the very moment that state legislators are questioning the value of DEI in higher education. Only precise legislation will end the discriminatory DEI regime on campus for good. Across all 50 states, Goldwater will continue to advocate for our reforms that help to restore public universities to their core missions: the pursuit of truth and the education of thoughtful citizens.
Timothy K. Minella is a Senior Fellow at the Goldwater Institute’s Van Sittert Center for Constitutional Advocacy.
