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A meeting of the Idaho State Board of Education today could decide the fate of universities’ DEI offices.
Photo illustration by Justin Morrison/Inside Higher Ed | Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images | Idaho State Board of Education
The Idaho State Board of Education is slated to vote today on a resolution cutting back diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at public four-year colleges and universities. If university leaders’ actions are any indication, the resolution is expected to pass. Some institutions have already gotten busy renaming, slashing or replacing DEI-related centers with broader student success–oriented alternatives.
The draft resolution, introduced Nov. 21 and revised in the latest meeting agenda, would “ensure that no central offices, policies, procedures, or initiatives are dedicated to DEI ideology” and “no student resource or student success center serves students based on DEI ideology.” The resolution defines DEI as “any approach that prioritizes ‘personal identity characteristics’”—such as race, sexual orientation or religion—“over individual merit.”
An accompanying guidance document promises the resolution won’t conflict with accreditation requirements or Title IX requirements for athletic programs, or affect programming for Native American, first-generation or low-income students, or students with disabilities and veterans. Two other higher ed resolutions are also up for consideration: One affirms presidents’ power in higher ed governance, and another outlines limits on freedom of expression for faculty and students.
Joshua Whitworth, executive director of the State Board of Education, said the goal of the draft resolution was to “set a pathway that was best for our institutions” amid a wave of national debate and concern about DEI efforts. He added that the resolution is worded to target “political ideology” that can be a “distraction”—not diversity, which “is a good thing.”
“The path forward is really about making sure students holistically are supported and have their level of services—regardless of where they come from, their identity and the difficulties that they have—that whatever they need in support to be successful and have a successful career … that our institutions will be wrapping those student services around them,” Whitworth said.
Board member Kurt Liebich raised concerns at the Nov. 21 meeting that the anti-DEI resolution might be too broad and cause universities to go too far in their efforts to comply.
“What I’d hate to see here is that this language is interpreted in a way that we get rid of stuff that really makes a difference for students,” he said.
Whitworth told Inside Higher Ed such discussions are important.
Board members are concerned “that we implement this right and not just take a sledgehammer to something that needs a scalpel,” he said.
If the resolution passes, it wouldn’t be the first blow to DEI in the state. Idaho is among six states that passed new laws this year curtailing DEI efforts in higher ed. In March, Idaho governor Brad Little signed a bill that prohibits public higher ed institutions from requiring diversity statements from prospective students or employees. And last year, an education budget bill prevented state-appropriated funds from going to college student activities, groups or events related to diversity, equity and inclusion or “social justice ideology.”
Another Senate bill introduced earlier this year would have slashed DEI programs, with a list of specific employee positions to cut, but the legislation never made it to the floor. Now the State Legislature’s new DEI task force, which met for the first time this fall, may be mulling over future legislative action but has yet to make a move.
TJ Bliss, chief academic officer for the State Board of Education, said the board’s resolution could influence how state lawmakers approach the issue down the line—or lawmakers may decide the resolution is enough to address their concerns. He’s glad the board took the lead on the issue, so the board can both exercise its traditional authority over these institutions and inject nuance into the statewide discussions based on universities’ feedback.
“No approach will fully satisfy everyone in such a charged debate," Bliss said. “But the resolutions, as a collaborative product that reflects university input, community input, student input, offers a better way forward than a unilateral ban on DEI or DEI ideology.”
Paulette Granberry Russell, president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, believes the Idaho State Board of Education resolution, like similar bills across the country, is overly broad and misconstrues what DEI officers seek to do. DEI initiatives are already intended to foster “the success of all students,” she said, but with the recognition that depending on their backgrounds and experiences, they may need different interventions and supports to achieve success.
“If the objective is for students to succeed, I worry that this resolution runs counter to that goal,” she said.
Early Effects
Though the resolution has yet to pass, some universities in the state have already started scrambling to eliminate or restructure their DEI centers and programs.
Boise State University, for example, abruptly closed its Student Equity Center and Gender Equity Center over Thanksgiving break, according to an email sent out to students last week.
“We all have heard the conversations taking place this year across the nation related to diversity, equity and inclusion and higher education,” Boise State leaders wrote. “We remain steadfast in our commitment to serving all students while seeking to be responsive to our governing board’s expectations.”
The message acknowledged that the centers’ staff “impacted the lives of thousands of students.” University leaders promised to hold a spring event to celebrate the centers’ contributions to campus, and a spokesperson told Inside Higher Ed no positions would be cut as a result of the centers closing.
In the meantime, the university plans to launch a new Student Connections and Support Center, which will include an academic support program for first-generation students slated to open next fall. The concept for the new center was developed after “months of consultation and engagement with students, faculty, and staff on our campus and colleagues across the United States,” university leaders wrote.
Idaho State University president Robert Wagner similarly announced—ahead of the resolution’s introduction—that the Office of Equity and Inclusion will be renamed the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX and will be “reorganized to better meet the needs of students, faculty, and staff.”
Programs offered by the Diversity Resource Center and the Gender Resource Center will also be integrated into broader support services, “thus dissolving the current structure of these centers,” Wagner said. Meanwhile, a new Bengal Success Center, named after the university’s mascot, is in the works.
“As always, our top priority is the success of our students,” Wagner wrote. “We are confident that this change will help us better fulfill our mission to serve all students and prepare them for their future careers while respecting the expectations of the broader community we serve.”
The University of Idaho initially took a wait-and-see approach, not making any immediate changes to its Office of Equity and Inclusion or the programs under its auspices.
But Sydney Freeman Jr., director of the Black History Research Lab and a full professor of adult, organizational learning and leadership at the U of I, posted on social media Monday that the office hadn’t been spared. He wrote that the university closed its Black/African American Cultural Center, which he helped create, under pressures from the State Board of Education and state lawmakers. The university’s Women’s Center, Office of Multicultural Affairs and LGBTQA Center were “also targeted for closure,” he said.
“My heart goes out to all of the leaders, community partners, and students who invested their time, energy, and talents in sustaining and advancing these units to ensure all minoritized populations maintained spaces where they could have a sense of belonging,” Freeman posted.
Jodi Walker, executive director of communications at the University of Idaho, did not confirm or deny his account. She told Inside Higher Ed in an email that university leaders “have not, at this time, announced closure of any offices in our Equity and Diversity Unit,” noting that the State Board of Education had yet to discuss the resolution.
“We will follow that guidance, keeping student support at the forefront of everything we do,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, Lewis-Clark State College has made no changes to its diversity, equity and inclusion offerings, Logan Fowler, director of communications and marketing, told Inside Higher Ed.
“At this time, the institution is not undergoing or anticipating changes to its services related to the resolutions,” Fowler wrote in an email. “As a public institution, we will continue to be transparent and responsive to the needs of our students, community and state.”
State lawmakers have been talking about curbing DEI for years now, so Whitworth isn’t surprised to see universities making changes. He said some universities’ plans preceded the resolution and helped to inform its development.
“We’ve all been trying to solve this together,” he said.
Students and Faculty Push Back
Some students and faculty members are pushing back against the resolution and demanding their DEI offices and programs be left alone.
The University of Idaho Faculty Senate passed a resolution last week, with a 10-to-8 vote, asserting its support for “current programming offices, and maintaining and extending support to such programs that are devoted to increasing equity, diversity, and inclusion on campus.”
Kristin Haltinner, chair of the Faculty Senate, wrote in an email to Inside Higher Ed that while she can’t speak for the whole group, “what I can say is that the faculty at the University of Idaho remain committed to serving all of our students. Right now that means providing extra care to those impacted by the closure of these centers as we figure out what is next.”
A group of University of Idaho students also wrote a report last month defending the university’s Office of Equity and Diversity and sent it to administrators, the State Board of Education and the State Legislature’s DEI task force. The report includes testimonials from 66 students about their positive experiences with the office’s programs and services.
“In my four years at UI, these offices were the one place I could be my authentic self,” one student wrote. “If it were not for the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Black/African American Cultural Center, I don’t know if I would have graduated let alone be pursuing a masters degree.”
Nick Koenig, a geography doctoral student at the University of Idaho, worked on the report out of a sense of responsibility and gratitude toward some of the programs. As a nonbinary student, Koenig said they initially decided to attend the U of I after a reassuring Zoom meeting with the former director of the LGBTQA Center.
Three years later, the resolution, and universities’ responses, have left Koenig feeling anything but reassured.
Universities are “just complying pre-emptively, which is just so troubling to me, and it’s so saddening,” Koenig said. “I haven’t heard anybody saying we must fight for our marginalized students. It’s more of a ‘We’re going to adapt so we can do the best we can.’”
Now Koenig is actively applying to jobs outside the state and considering graduating a year early, even though Idaho’s forests are the ideal place for their research on how tree rings can be used to study climate change.
They hoped to stay put, but considering the recent political climate, “it just seems that nobody wants me to stay.”
Whitworth doesn’t want students to feel that way.
“Any change like this is going to be difficult on the students that only know one model, but that future set of students will not know the difference as they walk into an institution that has support restructured,” he said.
Still, right now “we should expect some worry and skepticism about how they’ll be supported going forward,” he added. University and board leaders need to “be empathetic to the change that is there, and then make sure that these students know they have the support that they need, however it’s organized, going forward.”