Daily Briefing

Welcome to Wednesday, March 1. Today’s Briefing was written by Kate Hidalgo Bellows, with contributions from Julia Piper. Write to us: kate.hidalgobellows@chronicle.com.

Will bans on diversity offices pass legal muster?

Conservative politicians across the country are busy working to tear down the infrastructure and staffing many public colleges have erected to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion:

• In Florida, a bill introduced last week would stop public-college activities that “espouse diversity, equity, and inclusion or critical race theory” and ban the use of diversity statements in hiring and promotions.
• In West Virginia, a bill introduced in February would ban public colleges from engaging in diversity, equity, and inclusion activities, including mandatory diversity training or efforts to manipulate or influence “the composition of the faculty or student body with reference to race, sex, color, or ethnicity.”
• In Texas, a bill introduced in December would prohibit the funding, promotion, sponsorship, or support of offices that support the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

But will these various efforts, if enacted, survive the legal challenges that could follow? Our Adrienne Lu spoke with legal experts from across the ideological spectrum about the origins of diversity offices, and the legality of bans on them, for this week’s Race on Campus.

Quick hits.

• U.S. News & World Report has tagged seven graduate schools that came forward about misreporting data that was later used to calculate their rankings. Those schools have been reclassified as unranked. (U.S. News & World Report)
• The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in two cases challenging President Biden’s student-loan forgiveness plan. The court is expected to deliver a decision later this year. (USA Today)
• The U.S. Department of Education has delayed guidance that expands oversight of ed-tech vendors. Colleges, which were originally required to report their arrangements with third-party servicers by May 1, will now have until September to do so. (On EdTech, The Chronicle)
• Utica University’s Board of Trustees voted to discontinue 13 majors due to low enrollment. The university will maintain the programs until enrolled students have completed them, but the majors will no longer accept new students. (Daily Sentinel)
• In the latest chapter of the ongoing feud over Yeshiva University‘s decision not to recognize an LGBTQ student club, the comptroller of New York City sent Yeshiva a letter warning that it could lose city funding if it doesn’t change course. (Louis Keene on Twitter)
• Miami University of Ohio has ended its Covid vaccine mandate, citing high immunity levels in the campus community. (WLWT)
• If only they had this when I was a 19-year-old RA trying to MacGyver my way to bulletin-board excellence: Canva has created a paid subscription for colleges, which grants students, faculty, and staff access to the graphic-design website’s full toolkit. (TechCrunch)

Quote of the day.

“I may be a white boy, but I’m not stupid. I know where the power is.”

At a White House event for Black History Month, President Biden shouted out the Divine Nine, which refers to the nine historically Black fraternities and sororities that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council. All of the organizations’ presidents were in attendance at the event, Biden said.

“You think I’m joking,” Biden added. “I learned a long time ago about the Divine Nine. That’s why I spent so much time at Delaware State [an HBCU] campaigning and organizing my campaign in Delaware.”

Comings and goings.

• Chanelle Whittaker, associate vice chancellor for human resources at Los Rios Community College District, in California, has been named vice president for equity, culture, and talent at Prince George’s Community College, in Maryland.
• Todd Pfannestiel, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Utica University, has been named the university’s next president. He will succeed Laura Casamento, who will retire in July.
• Alena Allen, deputy director of the Association of American Law Schools and a professor of law at the University of Arkansas School of Law, has been named dean of the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge.
• Saonee Sarker, a professor at the School of Economics and Management at Lund University, in Sweden, has been named the next dean of the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business.

To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com.

Footnote.

Congrats to the Howard University men’s swimming and diving team, which won its conference championship for the first time in 34 years on Sunday. Howard’s is the only all-Black team in college swimming, and the Washington, D.C., university is the only historically Black institution with a swim program.