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Six states, including one with a Democratic governor, have banned or barred the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives (DEIs). in public colleges and universities this year
The practice of DEI in higher education institutions has been controversial for several years, more often than not Republican opposition and described by critics, such as civil rights attorney Devon Westhill, as an “industry that pushes left-wing and far-left ideological orthodoxy into essentially every area of American life.”
Only in 2024 did Alabama, Idaho, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, and Utah prohibit or limit the use of this teaching or use in the application process in their state’s education system.
In January, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, signed legislation to prohibit institutions from engaging in “discriminatory practices” such as “making an individual, by virtue of the individual’s personal identity characteristics, take responsibility for actions committed in the past by other people.” people with the same characteristics of personal identity”.
The University of Utah campus seen from Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Rick Bowmer)
The anti-DEI law also prohibited schools from having any policy, procedure, practice, program, office, initiative, or required training that refers to or is named “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
In March, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama signed SB 129 into law. It bans certain DEI offices, as well as “the promotion, endorsement, and affirmation of certain divisive concepts in certain public settings.”
The bill prohibits “divisive concepts” such as “that any individual should accept, acknowledge, affirm or assent to a sense of guilt, complicity or the need to apologize based on his race, color, religion, sex . . , ethnicity or national origin” and “that meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist”.
The legislation also required that bathrooms be used based on biological sex rather than gender identity, and that public institutions of higher education “authorize certain penalties for violation.”
Governor Kay Ivey answers questions from reporters during a news conference at the Alabama State Capitol building in Montgomery, Ala. (Reuters)
Also in March, Indiana adopted legislation modify the duties of diversity committees of state educational institutions and increase “intellectual diversity”. In addition, the Indiana House introduced legislation to further ban DEI teachings in schools by requiring that educators “not promote in any course certain concepts related to race or sex.”
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Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, allowed legislation barring postsecondary educational institutions from engaging in certain DEI-related actions to become law without her signature. The bill, passed in April, imposes a $10,000 fine on any public institution that uses DEI practices in its faculty hiring or student enrollment processes.
“While I have concerns about this legislation, I do not believe that the conduct targeted in this legislation occurs at our universities,” Kelly wrote in his passage of the bill.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, another Republican, signed an education funding bill in May that contained provisions to limit DEI in schools, just months after the state board of education state began to reduce these practices in higher education.
Spring campus scene at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. (Don and Melinda Crawford/UCG/Universal Images Group)
The bill prohibits “any effort to promote, as the official position of the public institution of higher education, a particular and widely controversial opinion that refers to unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, alliance, ideology transgender, microaggressions, group marginalization, anti-racism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, nee pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, theory of gender, racial privilege, sexual privilege, or any related formulation of these concepts”.
Idaho became the latest state to determine that institutions cannot “require specific DEI-related structures or activities.”
In December, the Idaho Board of Education unanimously agreed to a resolution requiring institutions to “ensure that no central office, policy, procedure or initiative is devoted to DEI ideology” and “ensure that no employee or student is forced to declare gender identity or preferred pronouns”.
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Other states, including Florida, Texas, and Tennessee, have previously banned the practice of DEI in higher education.
