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Louisiana’s public colleges and universities spend only 0.1 percent of the state’s higher ed budget on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to an analysis from The Louisiana Illuminator.

Last year lawmakers asked all public higher ed institutions in the state to submit a report detailing their expenditures on DEI. Sixteen institutions reported spending nothing, and 17 said they spent between 0.001 percent and 0.42 percent of their budget on DEI, according to the Illuminator, which obtained the reports through public records requests. All told, DEI programs cost those 17 institutions $3.5 million out of the state’s $2.7 billion higher ed appropriations.

The Illuminator noted that those figures may actually be inflated, given that the legislation mandating the DEI reports, Act 641, left some room for interpretation.

For instance, institutions were required to report the number of DEI personnel they employ, but not all counted them the same way; some included only full-time DEI workers while others factored in those who work only occasionally on DEI initiatives.

And eight of the nine University of Louisiana system institutions counted international student centers as part of their DEI offerings, which is not typical. Those eight centers alone cost just under $919,000, the Illuminator reported, or about one-third of the total higher ed spending on DEI.

“While we are uncertain if international offices should be included, this is the first time we have completed this report,” Marcus Jones, chief operating officer the UL system, told the Illuminator. “Therefore, we included anything that might fall under the statute’s broad definitions.”