University of Texas puts block on new diversity policies

The University of Texas system has halted the introduction of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies across its 13 institutions, complying with an order by the state’s Republican governor covering all public sector organisations.

While its action against DEI efforts reflected the mandate of governor Greg Abbott, the Texas system board of regents is entirely composed of Abbott appointees, and it welcomed the move.

“It’s fair to say that in recent times,” said Kevin Eltife, a property investor and developer serving as chair of the regents, “certain DEI efforts have strayed from the original intent to now imposing requirements and actions that, rightfully so, have raised the concerns of our policymakers.”

The action in Texas came one day before student protests in Florida against another Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, over his efforts to end DEI policies at his state universities, also in a broad attack on state government efforts to reduce race-based societal inequities.

The full implications of the Texas order were not immediately clear. The regents ordered their eight academic institutions and five medical institutions to suspend “any new DEI policies” and provide it a report on their existing DEI practices.

Such policies are found across the state’s higher education system, and generally involve efforts to help make people of varying races, sexual orientations and physical disability feel welcomed and comfortable.

The governor’s office told all state agencies earlier in the month that such practices are illegal in hiring, despite consistent outside expert assessments to the contrary.

The systemwide change came just a week after one of the state’s largest public institutions, Texas Tech University, ordered an end to a practice in which its biology department had been asking faculty candidates to submit statements on their personal understanding of DEI and commitment to it.

Most state universities in Texas have DEI programmes. The flagship institution, the University of Texas at Austin, added DEI officers to all of its academic units, as part of a series of pro-equity reforms nationwide in 2017 following the violent pro-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Such questions remain politically potent across the US. The Biden administration has repeatedly argued in favour of diversity efforts, and the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights last month issued a factsheet declaring that DEI training is legal “in most factual circumstances”.

Mr Abbott, ordering an end to DEI considerations in state government hiring, had argued that such practices violated state and federal law.

paul.basken@timeshighereducation.com