The News
Legislation aimed at curtailing efforts to explicitly recruit and retain underrepresented students and staff on college campuses went into effect Monday in Utah, Indiana, Kansas, and Idaho.
Since the beginning of this year, state lawmakers have introduced at least 39 bills meant to eliminate or restrict higher education’s diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in 19 states. Two federal bills have been proposed in Congress. So far, of those introduced, six have passed, while 20 have been tabled, vetoed, or failed to pass, according to The Chronicle’s DEI Legislation Tracker.
The Details
Utah’s law, HB 261, is the most sweeping. Signed in January by Gov. Spencer J. Cox, a Republican, it bans DEI-related offices, diversity training, and hiring people and admitting students based on their identity.
Under the law, public colleges are also not allowed to require potential or current employees to submit statements about their individual efforts around a series of concepts including antiracism, bias, critical race theory, implicit bias, intersectionality, racial privilege, and other “discriminatory practices.”
Indiana’s law, SB 202, which Gov. Eric J. Holcomb, a Republican, signed into law in March, allows public colleges’ boards to punish faculty members who fail to promote “intellectual diversity,” which the law broadly defines as “multiple, divergent, and varied scholarly perspectives on an extensive range of public-policy issues.”
Colleges are also not allowed to require an applicant or employee to “pledge allegiance to” or make a statement in support of a political or ideological movement or a policy that would treat people differently based on their race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, or religion. The law also severely limits when administrators can collectively weigh in on issues outside of an institution’s core mission, and requires each college to adopt a “neutrality policy.”
Kansas’ new law, HB 2105, which Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, allowed to pass in April without her signature, prohibits public colleges from hiring a new employee or admitting a student on the condition that they pledge to support or oppose “any political ideology or movement.”
Colleges must post any training materials and policies related to “nondiscrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion, race, ethnicity, sex or bias” on their websites.
Idaho’s law, SB 1274, signed in March by Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, bans colleges from requiring an applicant to complete a written or oral statement discussing their race, sex, color, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, as well as their views on DEI, social justice, confessing one’s race-based or sex-based privilege, partisan politics, religion, or any theory that advocates for the differential treatment of people based on their identity.
The Backdrop
DEI advocates say college officials have a legal and moral obligation to directly and explicitly address discrimination and inequities on college campuses. Officials are also obligated to comply with federal antidiscrimination laws and DEI accreditation standards, advocates argue.
Republicans say such efforts are often ineffective, expensive, and discriminatory against white students. Since 2023, state lawmakers have introduced at least 85 anti-DEI bills across 28 states, many using model legislation from the Manhattan and Goldwater Institutes, two Republican think tanks. Lawmakers passed eight laws last year.
What’s Next
As more laws have gone into effect, administrators have struggled to interpret their vague guidelines, resulting in haphazard and uneven implementation. Several colleges have renamed offices or reassigned DEI-related employees. Other institutions, such as the University of Texas at Austin, have fired dozens of staff members.
In Utah, three colleges have eliminated identity-based centers, closed DEI offices, and reassigned several employees. All four-year public colleges in Idaho and the Kansas State University system have ended the use of diversity statements, according to local media and The Chronicle’s DEI Impact Tracker.
Dismantling of DEI
We’ve documented actions taken on hundreds of college campuses to alter or eliminate jobs, offices, hiring practices, and programs amid pressure to end identity-conscious recruitment and retention of minority staff and students.
Colleges in some states, including Texas, Tennessee, Utah, Indiana, Kansas, and Iowa, must follow strict compliance oversight that requires administrators to report to government officials on how they have complied with anti-DEI laws. In Indiana, institutions must create complaint systems for students or employees who believe the law has been violated. And Utah’s Board of Higher Education must conduct biannual reviews of colleges to ensure they have complied with the law.
While lawmakers say the compliance systems will prevent colleges from skirting around the laws, DEI advocates worry they’ll only cause administrators and faculty members to overcorrect.
