What’s New
Leaders of several Texas universities told the State Senate’s higher-education subcommittee on Tuesday they are trying their best to dismantle all of their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to comply with a new state ban.
James B. Milliken, chancellor of University of Texas system, said the system last year spent around $25 million on DEI, but since the ban took effect, it has eliminated 311 full-time and part-time DEI positions. John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M University system, said it had eliminated the positions of eight DEI officers and 114 other jobs. Leaders of other systems, such as Texas Woman’s University, testified that they had not had to make many changes to comply with the ban.
Sen. Brandon Creighton, the subcommittee’s Republican chair and a leading sponsor of the ban, insisted that the public and the media had the misconception that Republicans want to limit who can go to college. A different direction was needed, he said, after people accused colleges of promoting equity over merit. Before DEI programs existed, Creighton said, colleges focused on recruiting “the best and brightest across the state, regardless of background or disability.”
“No amount of DEI training that are mandatory — workshops or political oaths that have to be signed in order to apply for a job — will open up opportunities for underserved students in Texas,” said Creighton. In the 10 years of DEI recruitment, Creighton said, diversity has stagnated or worsened.
Sen. Royce West, a Democrat on the subcommittee, said DEI programs were never given a fair chance to thrive.
“The fact is, DEI programs, as I recall, came about right after George Floyd” was killed, in 2020, said West. “The resistance against DEI came after George Floyd’s death. Now, someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think I am.”
The Context
Since 2023, 13 states have enacted laws banning diversity training, hiring or admissions based on identity, the hiring of DEI officers, or the use of diversity statements, according to The Chronicle’s tracker.
The Chronicle has also tracked 153 colleges in 20 states that have changed their DEI programs over the past year as part of a concerted push to dismantle DEI.
What’s Next?
Sharp said new recruitment efforts at Texas A&M to replace DEI programs would work for everyone. The efforts include dispatching professors to work in local community colleges, and subsidizing more students’ tuition.
“The reason it’s going to work is because you’re making everybody put effort into it instead of — just as I said — putting up a website and hoping they come in,” said Sharp.
Milliken cited the University of Texas’ Promise Plus Program, which pays the tuition of students whose families make less than $125,000 a year.
The chancellor of the Texas State University system, Brian McCall, said Black and Hispanic enrollment had gone up in the two or three years since it started dismantling DEI. When those enrollments drop, he said, then he’ll consider diversity a problem.
