The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Kentucky announced this week that they are closing their diversity, equity, and inclusion offices.
While Nebraska’s DEI office dissolution comes from a restructuring of executive offices, Kentucky’s comes after pressure from state lawmakers who appear poised to institute some kind of restriction on the ideology next year.
Both moves come as DEI ideology has grown in unpopularity, taking heavy criticism from Republicans who believe it to be inherently racist, sexist, and antimeritocratic.
“We will reimagine how we approach this work at UNL,” Nebraska Chancellor Rodney Bennett said in a statement. “I fully grasp the weight of this decision and its implications, but a centralized approach to this work is no longer right for our institution.”
While some schools have been forced by state law to dissolve completely their DEI offices and remove the bureaucrats who worked toward the ideology’s ends, others in states such as Wyoming and Utah have been able to maintain the ideology and merely get rid of the offices themselves.
That appears to be the case in Nebraska, where the responsibilities of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion will be embedded into several different offices, including the offices of the Executive Vice Chancellor, Business and Finance, and Student Life. In addition, the school’s Diversity Advisory Board will become the Chancellor’s Advisory Board on Community and Belonging.
“These offices will closely coordinate with each other and with Colleges and support units to ensure that each member of our campus community knows that they are valued and supported,” Bennet added. “Let me be unequivocal — we will steadfastly uphold the principle that every person and every interaction matters, and we will continue to recruit and support faculty, staff, and students from all backgrounds and identities.”
The move from Bennet seems to fly in the face of testimony given by the university several months ago, when the Nebraska legislature was weighing a DEI ban.
“We are concerned about how this bill would impact our ability to compete for students, for faculty and staff,” interim Chancellor Chris Kabourek testified at the time. “I think we all value diversity and the benefits of being welcoming. Certainly, that’s the kind of environment we strive and want to create on our campuses.”
That bill failed to pass.
Kentucky’s immediate disbanding of the Office for Institutional Diversity appears to be a similar half-measure, as school President Eli Capilouto announced Tuesday that while the office was closing down, no one would lose their job.
The former DEI bureaucrats will be absorbed into other offices, and a department called the Office for Community Relations will be created.
“We share the value that out of many people, we are one community,” Capilouto said in a statement. “But we’ve also listened to policymakers and heard many of their questions about whether we appear partisan or political on the issues of our day.”
The decision appears preemptive and came after questioning from state lawmakers critical of DEI ideology. However, despite Republican supermajorities in both state houses, legislators could not come to an agreement on how to ban DEI in Kentucky this session, which ended in April.
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The issue is expected to reappear next session, which begins early next year.
“The concern is that we either intentionally or unintentionally limit discourse,” Capilouto said. “I hear many of those concerns reflected in discussions with some of our students, faculty and staff across our campus.”