What’s New
Utah has become the sixth state to adopt legislation that limits diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at public colleges, after Gov. Spencer J. Cox, a Republican, on Tuesday signed a sweeping measure into law. The bill passed by wide party-line margins in both the House and Senate, and earned Cox’s signature just two weeks after its introduction; that fast pace drew criticism last week from Utah’s top higher-education official.
The bill is the first targeting DEI to be signed into law this year, after seven bills in five states became law in 2023, according to The Chronicle’s tracker. At least 16 states will consider restrictions on campus DEI this year.
The Details
The Utah law, proposed by State Rep. Katy Hall, a Republican, prohibits public colleges from having DEI offices or staffs, holding mandatory diversity training, using diversity statements in hiring and promotion, and considering race, sex, ethnicity, or national origin in admissions or employment. All four of those provisions follow model state legislation proposed last year by the Goldwater Institute and the Manhattan Institute.
At least three other bills proposed this year — in Arizona, South Carolina, and West Virginia — would impose the same requirements, but Utah’s is the first to be signed into law. Geoffrey Landward, the state’s interim commissioner of higher education, has said the measure is “untested” and will be “difficult to implement.” Landward warned the state Senate’s Education Committee last week that if the bill, HB 261, were passed, he would “inevitably” need to return to the Legislature for “clarification, revision, and guidance.”
Landward and officials at public institutions across the state — including K-12 schools and government offices — will now work to comply with the law, which will take effect on July 1. In other states, the broad scope and vague language of anti-DEI laws have made them difficult to interpret and carry out.
The Utah law includes a provision that redirects money that would have been used on DEI programs and positions toward student-success initiatives at each institution. Those efforts, which could include student-success offices or staff positions, will “provide support, guidance, and resources that equip all students, including all students at higher risk of not completing a certificate or degree, with experiences and opportunities for success.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Cox touted that stipulation as carving out a middle ground. “We’ve been concerned about some DEI programs and policies, particularly with hiring practices, and this bill offers a balanced solution,” he said. “I’m grateful to the Legislature for not following the lead of other states that simply eliminated DEI funding with no alternative path for students who may be struggling. Instead, this funding will be repurposed to help all Utah students succeed, regardless of their background.”
The Backdrop
The Utah law comes a year after a similar bill, SB 283, was shelved by its sponsor, Sen. John D. Johnson, a Republican. That bill would have blocked public institutions from funding or promoting DEI offices, but in pulling it from consideration, Johnson said it had been “way too harsh,” The Salt Lake Tribune reported. Another bill introduced in last year’s legislative session, by Hall, proposed a ban on requiring diversity statements for hiring, promotion, or admissions. That measure passed the House but failed in a Senate committee.
Momentum against diversity statements in particular continued, though, with Cox in December saying that requiring them was “awful, bordering on evil.” The state’s Board of Higher Education said in response to Cox’s comments that it “continues to collaborate with all Utah colleges and universities to wind down the use of such statements,” and the president of the University of Utah followed suit in January, announcing that his institution would stop using diversity statements in hiring.
The new law “ensures academic freedom on university campuses, where all voices will be heard,” its Senate sponsor, Keith Grover, a Republican, said last week before that chamber voted to approve it. But Democrats in both legislative bodies expressed staunch opposition. Karen Kwan, Grover’s Senate colleague and an associate professor of psychology emeritus at Salt Lake Community College, said on the Senate floor that she’d fielded hundreds of emails, texts, and phone calls from constituents who felt “ignored and dismissed.”
“The unintended consequences of this bill can not be overlooked,” Kwan said. “It risks dismantling essential support systems and creating a void for students who rely on these safe spaces.”
What to Watch For
Utah’s public colleges will now have five months to come into compliance with the law before it takes effect, and they are likely to seek clarification from the state on how to do so. No president of a Utah institution has commented publicly on the law since its introduction — a result of rules recently passed by the Utah Board of Higher Education that require public colleges to “refrain from taking public positions on political, social, or unsettled issues that do not directly relate to the institution’s mission, role, or pedagogical objectives.”
Cox, meanwhile, is in the final year of his first term as governor. He’ll be on the ballot for a second in November.
