Dozens of Campuses Shed or Alter DEI Efforts as Political Pressure Mounts

Since January 2023, at least 116 college campuses have altered or eliminated offices, jobs, hiring practices, and programs that explicitly recruit and retain students and staff from marginalized communities in response to state legislation and political pressure, according to a Chronicle analysis.

The Chronicle combed through local media reports, spoke with faculty and students, and surveyed college administrators to better understand how pending and enacted anti-DEI legislation is changing campus services.

DEI offices have taken the greatest hit, with dozens of colleges renaming or closing departments. Colleges have cut funding for other DEI programs, and reassigned DEI employees to other parts of the institution.

On some campuses, including the University of Florida and the University of Texas at Austin, administrators have laid off much of their full-time DEI staff. Other colleges have scrapped the use of diversity statements, and mandatory training courses.

Efforts to eliminate identity-conscious recruitment and retainment of minority administrators, faculty, and students began in early 2023 after the Manhattan and Goldwater Institutes, two conservative think tanks, published model legislation in a push to reverse “the illiberal takeover of higher education through Diversity, Equity, Inclusion offices that, ironically, stifle intellectual diversity, prevent equal opportunity, and exclude anyone who dissents from a rigid orthodoxy.”

Since then, lawmakers have introduced at least 84 bills targeting DEI practices. Twelve have become law.