University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chancellor Rodney Bennett on Tuesday announced plans to dissolve the school’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Bennett was hired last year and is the first Black person to lead Nebraska’s flagship public university campus.
“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,” Bennett said in a public letter.
The quest to limit DEI initiatives gained momentum this year in a number of state houses. Iowa’s Republican-led Legislature approved a budget bill that would ban all DEI offices and initiatives in higher education that aren’t necessary to comply with accreditation or federal law.
The University of Missouri recently announced that it is dissolving its “Inclusion, Diversity and Equity” division and dispersing the staff among other departments.
The University of Kentucky has also announced it will disband its office promoting diversity and inclusion efforts in response to questions from policymakers that its focus on identity has stifled political discussions, its president said Tuesday.
In Kentucky, GOP lawmakers at the forefront of DEI debates said Tuesday that they welcomed the action taken by UK and urged other public universities to take similar steps.
“A true elimination of these DEI policies in our public universities will end the division they promote, and allow our colleges and universities to be the true bastion of free thought we need them to be,” Republican state Sen. Mike Wilson said in a statement.
Opponents of the anti-DEI bills in Kentucky warned that the restrictions on campuses could roll back gains in minority enrollments and stifle campus discussions about past discrimination.