Diversity offices on college campuses will soon be illegal in Texas, as 30 new laws go into effect
Diversity offices on college campuses will soon be illegal in Texas, as 30 new laws go into effect
Other new laws make changes to the tax code, criminal justice and health care systems.
When Texas college students return to their campuses after the winter break, they’ll discover the lights are still off in their campuses’ diversity offices.
That’s because a new law that outlaws such work at the state’s higher education institutions goes into effect, Jan. 1.
Another 29 laws also will go into effect in the new year that aim to change the economy, tax codes and the criminal justice system.
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Dissolving diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at public universities: Senate Bill 17 requires public universities to end so-called diversity, equity and inclusion work. Universities will also be unable to offer training on diversity and inclusion for its faculty and staff, or require diversity statements in hiring processes. Universities must also confirm to the Legislature between legislative sessions that they are in full compliance.
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The law’s restrictions do not apply to class instruction, materials needed for federal grant applications or student organizations on campuses, but multiple university officials have said the law has made hiring new faculty more difficult.
Lone Star is a rating.
201They don't care. Everything's bigger in Texas. Including the delusion that Texas is great.
73I've never seen a larger group of insecure people desperately overcompensating. So, to be fair, they are number one in that sense.
48and the hate towards queer people. and their Lifted dodge ram trucks.
21
Great laugh to start the day. Thanks so much!
7And I'd say it's still overrated.
5
The cruelty is the point
66Makes sense that a state that originally declared independence from Mexico because they wanted to keep up the institution of slavery also doesn't want a diverse university population.
64Asshats seem to do this in the death throes of failed ideas. Lose a case and double down with a pile of new laws that take a decade to untangle in the courts.
This is 100% a replay of racists' loss on segregation, and it's happening in both red and blue states on separate issues: as bigots in red stateslose on human rights for classes they dislike and classists in blue states lose the rich having the monopoly on force/self-defense.
60Shit states gonna shit state.
44They are a rough draft. It's the sandbox for just how awful a government can treat it's citizens before they revolt. So far it's working really well. Except the final draft in 2024.
11
Can we let them have their freedom so I can stop funneling my tax dollars to their autocratic christofascist fucking messes?
Seriously.. you're right. I'm a coastal elite douchebag. You were right all along. I get it now. By all means, please go your own way. Don't let the door hit your electrical grid on the way out..
9Let's give the state back to Mexico and let them sort it out
4Republicans love small government. /s
2Small Government! Freedom!
1While I think this law is overall a bad thing, ending diversity statements is a good thing. They add unnecessary work to an already onerous application process, and mostly serve to just serve to exclude lower class applicants of any race who don't know the right way to write a diversity statement. In practice they're mostly a class signifier and should be abolished.
0Ah yes those poor dumb University hopefuls who don't know how to use google because they are too impoverished to learn how to use a computer and have too much lead poisoning impacted impairments to learn to write a basic essay... To apply for University...
Did they get rid of Legacy admissions by any chance?
0
An unpopular opinion I’m sure (for reasons), but do these offices actually achieve anything besides bloating up the already obese administration that sucks money away from the academic side of the university?
-3Ah yes, suddenly everyone cares about where money is going when discussing something they dislike.
The thing about diversity and inclusion is that there are a lot of systemic barriers that people don't see until they go looking for them. People who live with disadvantages learn to adapt to them and frequently don't vocalize them to avoid being a burden. Contrary to conservative narrative, these offices do more than promote affirmative action. These offices examine historical architecture to make them more accessible to the handicapped, proactively identify/resolve problems for university brands, provide funds and support to clubs, and help with employment opportunities for students.
Will the closure of these offices immediately create problems for campuses? Probably not. Will there be other issues that pop up that these departments exist to prevent? Almost certainly
95It's absolutely bonkers to me that people don't believe there is intrinsic value to mechanical diversity. When I taught student engineering teams, the effects could not have been more obvious. Homogenous groups of "friends" would produce the most lazy, derivative and uncreative work, while it was always that last team of stragglers who had never spoken to each other who would consistently produce actual groundbreaking projects. Most of the time these were middle of the road students in terms of their grades as well.
Being forced outside of a comfort zone literally activates different parts of your brain. It forces you to approach problem solving and teamwork from first principles instead of conditioned and subconscious hierarchy. Seeing this first hand has probably been one of the most formative experiences for me, and I will continue to preach this gospel wherever I go. Just add it to the long list of reasons Texas can suck my tits.
44Ah yes, any disagreement must come from the “other team” and hatred or ignorance. How insightful…
As a minority who should have seen benefit from such an office, and who is not conservative by any means, all I saw from these diversity offices in college was posters for social events and regular emails from a long string of parasitic Chief Diversity Officers, while our labs and classrooms were looking increasingly dilapidated.
Do you have any evidence to back up the claims that these offices actually do anything toward achieving the stated goals? Surely they’ve been around long enough to have measurable outcomes.
-34
Probably not, honestly, but I truly can't think of a justification for making them illegal. How is outlawing diversity training and knowledge useful to anyone?
46DEI exercises in other kids of businesses often seem like performative BS, if we're being honest -- IMHO, this is a really legitimate and simple question. Especially considering the impact bloated admin "costs" (salaries, etc) have on students & society (e.g. student loan debt).
Not reading all the way down, but just wanted to say I think it sucks that you got downvoted for this comment. You've got one less from me, anyways.
But also yeah, they do try and do things that really make a difference. Among other things, they make cross-campus connections to develop initiatives aimed at supporting students from under- represented groups -- not just race or ethnicity, but also things like low-income, first generation in your family to attend, etc.
Things like this can strongly correlate with more distractions, difficulties, and obstacles in students' lives, compared to observations of students from so-called "privileged" backgrounds. Not providing anything that those students from other backgrounds don't have access to -- quite the opposite actually.
2I work at a large public university. The sad answer is every admin department is incredibly inefficient and DEI is no different. Six people who sit in an office 98% of the time doing things that should be done by a python script, 1% emailing the entire uni mandatory quizzes like "a student in your class called another student the N word, was that bad?" And the final 1% of the time doing things that actually matter.
-10Six people who sit in an office 98% of the time doing things that should be done by a python script
That problem exists in nearly every office environment.
15
actually i think the confederacy was a good idea. fuck off to your own shitty country please
-20Fuck that, finish the work reconstruction started.
7Lol the confederacy was a failed country. Leave you traitor.
6I think that's their point. They're saying all the shitty red states should just fuck off and learn the hard way.
As a resident of a shitty red state, I'd rather they didn't.
5
You lost, get over it 😚
4Fun fact: the Baby Shark song is older than the confederacy. (1861-1865). Even 3 1/2 years was too long.
4
Crazy how tuition is so expensive and they waste it on shit like this.
Glad I dropped out before wasting too much money.
-46Yeah... you "dropped out"... Sure buddy, sure... 👍
20