Some students at KU said they are worried about the impact of a new state law prohibiting state universities from funding positions or programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion starting Aug. 1.
The Kansas Legislature passed as part of its $27 billion spending bill new regulations calling for the elimination of any DEI initiatives at state agencies, including colleges and universities under the Kansas Board of Regents. The law also requires the removal of gender-identifying pronouns from email signatures on state employees’ email accounts.
Wichita State University earlier this month announced it will begin taking steps to comply with the law by cutting DEI programs and forcing the removal of pronouns in emails.
KU has not yet publicly announced plans to comply with the law. A spokesperson for the university did not respond to an email seeking more information.
In response to a February letter from the Department of Education threatening to pull funding from universities with DEI programs, KU Chancellor Doug Girod said the university would assess DEI-related university activity that could put federal funding in jeopardy.
Some changes have already been made, evident from KU’s website. Information about the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging is no longer available on KU’s website. It has been replaced by an Impact and Belonging team.
A banner at the top of the KU Office of Civil Rights & Title IX webpage, among others, reads: “This content is being reviewed in light of recent changes to federal guidance.” And a webpage for the Toni Johnson Center for Racial and Social Justice is no longer accessible on the KU website.
The university has also removed an online campus map that previously provided locations of all-gender restrooms, lactation rooms and reflection rooms.
Rhoswyn Hicks is a graduate student at KU pursuing a master’s degree in social work. They said some of their friends have started scrubbing DEI language from papers and grant proposals.
“Having to navigate an academic space that wants to erase me, and people like me, makes it incredibly difficult to learn and perform well,” Hicks said. “I and many other students are not just feeling the pain from the university’s action mentally, but it’s also manifesting physically.”
Hicks said KU should not comply with the state law, and they think KU will see a drop in enrollment of marginalized students if it does.
“If all educational institutions organize together they can fight back against this,” they said. “The claim that universities are powerless in what’s happening is just incorrect … KU needs to think long and hard about their priorities right now.”
KU student Meghan Arias said KU should not comply with the bill because the school represents and educates people of all backgrounds.
“The actions of universities in response to recent legislation will impact where incoming college students decide to attend and where professors decide to teach,” Arias said.
Arias said KU has displayed a “sickening capitulation to transphobic and hateful sentiments,” which worries her about how the university will respond to the legislation prohibiting pronouns in email signatures. Arias has been a part of multiple protests pushing back on KU’s decision to end gender-inclusive housing at Grace Pearson Scholarship Hall.
“It is a disgusting overreach for a public university to attempt to control what content anyone puts in their correspondence of any kind,” Arias said. “The recent conservative attacks on minorities are not only fundamentally immoral, but have harmed our nation as a whole. I am disappointed to see Kansas universities make this cowardly choice.”
Recent years have seen multiple challenges to KU’s DEI programs.
Last year, the Kansas Legislature passed a law tying $35.7 million to a requirement forbidding employment and admissions decisions to be based on diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
In September, three KU centers focused on diversity and equity were combined with each other and another campus center to create the Student Engagement Center. That meant the end of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity, and the Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity.
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.
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