Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    AI and Microcredentials
Sign In
Sunshine Budgeting

DeSantis Asked Florida Universities to Detail Their Diversity Spending. Here’s How They Answered.

By Francie Diep and Emma Pettit January 19, 2023
Photo illustration depicting Ron DeSantis surrounded by numbers stats representing Florida universities' spending on diversity initiatives and programs
Illustration by The Chronicle; Photo by Octavio Jones, Getty Images

In late December, Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office asked Florida’s public colleges and universities to detail their spending on diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical race theory, sending institutions into a hurried accounting of programs and classes that might qualify. Now the numbers have been submitted. Among the four-year universities, all reported amounts for those activities that came to 1 percent or less of their budgets.

Through a public-records request, The Chronicle obtained data that the State University System of Florida sent to the Republican governor’s office. They include activities at the 12 public, four-year universities in Florida. They list individual programs, offices, and courses, and the staffing and funding for each. Examples ranged from entire diversity offices to small student programs, like a “Friendsgiving” for international students. Efforts aimed at increasing the diversity of the faculty or the student body were common.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

In late December, Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office asked Florida’s public colleges and universities to detail their spending on diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical race theory, sending institutions into a hurried accounting of programs and classes that might qualify. Now the numbers have been submitted. Among the four-year universities, all reported amounts for those activities that came to 1 percent or less of their budgets.

Through a public-records request, The Chronicle obtained data that the State University System of Florida sent to the Republican governor’s office. They include activities at the 12 public, four-year universities in Florida. They list individual programs, offices, and courses, and the staffing and funding for each. Examples ranged from entire diversity offices to small student programs, like a “Friendsgiving” for international students. Efforts aimed at increasing the diversity of the faculty or the student body were common.

DeSantis’s request represented the latest escalation in the governor’s campaign against what he sees as liberal bias in higher education. He recently sent a request for information to the universities on students seeking gender-affirming health care. Earlier this month, he announced a new slate of trustees at New College of Florida as part of an effort to transform the system’s small liberal-arts college into the “Hillsdale of the South.”

The governor’s diversity-funding request alarmed some Florida faculty members who view DeSantis as a hostile actor bent on restricting instruction related to race on college campuses through his championing of HB 7, known as the “Stop WOKE” Act. Amanda J. Phalin, chair of the University of Florida’s Faculty Senate, said in a written statement that, “in the absence of transparency,” the diversity-spending directive sends a “chilling message that anyone who engages with topics that elected officials deem controversial is not welcome in the state of Florida.”

The total amounts the universities said they had spent on diversity-related programming ranged from as little as $8,400 (as reported by Florida Polytechnic University, which enrolls about 1,500 undergraduates) to $8.7 million (reported by the University of South Florida, with a student body of around 50,000). For 10 of the 12 universities, the amounts represented a fraction of 1 percent of their estimated expenditures in 2022-23. Florida A&M, the system’s only historically Black university, reported spending about 1 percent of its budget on relevant activities, as did the University of North Florida. On average, the universities reported that three-quarters of their diversity spending came from state funds.

Exactly what programs and activities universities reported ran the gamut. Florida A&M included its Centers for Disability Access and Resources and for Environmental Equity and Justice, and did not mention any courses. The University of West Florida was more specific in its response, even reporting the $4,800 it spent on phones and office supplies to support its diversity programs and the $100 it spent on World Religion Day.

Of the two days of orientation programming, “40 minutes could be considered DEI,” Florida State University reported.

The University of Florida, the state’s flagship, reported its chief diversity officer; programs aimed at improving the diversity of students and employees in different departments; and a few programs described as fostering more-inclusive environments. It reported 10 courses out of a catalog of thousands.

The universities also reported an array of training, such as the University of Florida’s “Gators Together Diversity and Inclusion Training Program,” an elective program for employees, and the University of South Florida business college’s online certificate in “DE&I in the Workplace.” Some institutions reported student programs. Florida State University reported the “Power of We,” a student-run initiative that “fosters civil discourse.”

The chancellor of the State University System of Florida, in communicating DeSantis’s wishes to the university presidents, had also asked for lists of relevant required courses. If they reported any, the universities listed, at most, a few dozen courses. Often they sent in exact course ID numbers. The courses span many subject areas, including theater appreciation and religious intolerance in America.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Chronicle also obtained many responses from Florida’s 28 state and community colleges. In one of them, a president expressed support for DeSantis, presaging an extraordinary joint letter a week later in which he and his colleagues pledged not to support any program that “compels belief in critical race theory.”

“Frankly, I applaud the Governor’s Office for investigating how higher education institutions spend their state appropriations,” G. Devin Stephenson, president of Northwest Florida State College, wrote in an email to Kathy Hebda, chancellor of the Florida College System, on January 11. “I believe taxpayer dollars allocated to NWFSC must be spent to maximize quality of life for all students, their families, and people of Northwest Florida.” Stephenson then angled for more money for his college, writing that its funding was “out of balance with comparable peer institutions.”

A version of this article appeared in the February 3, 2023, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Leadership & Governance Law & Policy
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
IMG_0023-removebg.png
About the Author
Francie Diep
Francie Diep is a senior reporter covering money in higher education. Email her at francie.diep@chronicle.com.
Emma-Pettit.png
About the Author
Emma Pettit
Emma Pettit is a senior reporter at The Chronicle who covers the ways people within higher ed work and live — whether strange, funny, harmful, or hopeful. She’s also interested in political interference on campus, as well as overlooked crevices of academe, such as a scrappy puppetry program at an R1 university and a charmed football team at a Kansas community college. Follow her on Twitter at @EmmaJanePettit, or email her at emma.pettit@chronicle.com.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Photo illustration showing Santa Ono seated, places small in the corner of a dark space
'Unrelentingly Sad'
Santa Ono Wanted a Presidency. He Became a Pariah.
Illustration of a rushing crowd carrying HSI letters
Seeking precedent
Funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions Is Discriminatory and Unconstitutional, Lawsuit Argues
Photo-based illustration of scissors cutting through paper that is a photo of an idyllic liberal arts college campus on one side and money on the other
Finance
Small Colleges Are Banding Together Against a Higher Endowment Tax. This Is Why.
Pano Kanelos, founding president of the U. of Austin.
Q&A
One Year In, What Has ‘the Anti-Harvard’ University Accomplished?

From The Review

Photo- and type-based illustration depicting the acronym AAUP with the second A as the arrow of a compass and facing not north but southeast.
The Review | Essay
The Unraveling of the AAUP
By Matthew W. Finkin
Photo-based illustration of the Capitol building dome propped on a stick attached to a string, like a trap.
The Review | Opinion
Colleges Can’t Trust the Federal Government. What Now?
By Brian Rosenberg
Illustration of an unequal sign in black on a white background
The Review | Essay
What Is Replacing DEI? Racism.
By Richard Amesbury

Upcoming Events

Plain_Acuity_DurableSkills_VF.png
Why Employers Value ‘Durable’ Skills
Warwick_Leadership_Javi.png
University Transformation: a Global Leadership Perspective
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin