LEXINGTON, Kentucky – Republican lawmakers who supported anti-DEI legislation earlier this year are praising the University of Kentucky for its decision to disband its Office of Institutional Diversity.

The Republican-controlled state legislature tried unsuccessfully this spring to pass legislation targeting diversity, equity and inclusion (commonly referred to as DEI) programs on college campuses.

UK announced its independent decision to disband its institutional diversity office on Tuesday. In addition, the university will eliminate diversity training and employees will no longer be required to write a diversity statement to be hired.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which tracks such legislation, 28 states have proposed legislation targeting DEI efforts on college campuses since 2023.

Many conservatives, including in Kentucky, describe DEI as discrimination against white conservatives and the latest form of institutions forcing “woke” ideology on students.

Universities, including British President Eli Capilouto, have pushed back against this characterization. Shortly after the bills were introduced in the winter, Capilouto condemned them, saying, “We are becoming more diverse.”

“We should embrace this change and seize the opportunities it offers, not shy away from it,” he said.

According to the UK website, the mission of the Office of Institutional Diversity was to “enhance the diversity and inclusivity of our university community by recruiting and retaining an increasingly diverse group of faculty, administrators, staff and students and implementing initiatives that provide rich diversity experiences for all to ensure their success in an interconnected world.”

Capilouto cited feedback he received over the summer, including meetings with lawmakers who raised concerns about the role of DEI in the UK, as reasons for closing the office.

Rep. Jennifer Decker, who sponsored the bill earlier this year to cut funding for DEI programs at public colleges and universities, praised UK for the changes. She has previously called such initiatives “failed policy” and “misguided” and said such programs would make colleges “more divided, more expensive and less tolerant.”

Republicans were close to passing Decker’s version of the bill, but decided against it on the last night of the regular session.

“Our efforts have always been aimed at eliminating unconstitutional, unnecessary, costly and duplicative red tape while ensuring campuses are open and welcoming to a diverse range of students and staff,” Decker, R-Waddy, said in a statement Tuesday.

Decker said she remains “hopeful that other institutions, as well as the Council on Postsecondary Education, will follow their example and recognize that this failed experiment has done nothing to make postsecondary education more accessible.”

Senate Majority Leader Mike Wilson, who also sponsored an unsuccessful bill to restrict DEI practices in higher education, said he was “pleased” with UK’s decision. During the legislative session, Wilson called DEI a “new form of discrimination.”

“I would encourage other institutions to follow UK’s initiative,” the Bowling Green Republican said in a statement Tuesday. “A true repeal of these DEI policies at our public universities will end the division they foster and allow our colleges and universities to be the true bastion of free thought that we need them to be.”

DeShana Collett, a professor at the UK Institute for Physician Assistant Studies, expressed disappointment at the dissolution of the Office of Institutional Diversity. Collett was the former chair of the University Senate before the Senate was dissolved by the Board of Trustees earlier this year.

“This move is deeply disheartening and reflects the institution’s capitulation to an oppressive political agenda rather than the evidence that is plentiful,” Collett said. “As a minority faculty member, this reinforces feelings of inequality and should cause others to seriously consider whether this is a university where they can thrive, not just survive.”

DEI legislation proposals failed in Kentucky

The two bills proposed by Decker and Wilson during the regular session of the House this winter would have blocked any DEI initiatives that promote “discriminatory concepts” and would have forced Kentucky’s public colleges and universities to cut DEI offices and positions and cut related funding.

The final version of Senate Bill 6, which would have closed DEI offices at public universities, was defeated at the last minute on the last night of the session.

In his Tuesday email announcing the changes, Capilouto said discussions with lawmakers have indicated that DEI will be brought before lawmakers again in 2025.

In March, Kentucky Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman declared that public universities’ application of certain DEI policies violated the U.S. Constitution and civil rights law.

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College, which struck down affirmative action last year, Coleman said it was unconstitutional to use “underrepresented minorities” as a benchmark for funding public colleges.

As a result, a law was passed that prohibited the Council on Postsecondary Education from taking race into account in its performance-based funding model that determines the distribution of state funds to public universities and community colleges.

CPE subsequently changed the measures in its performance-based funding model to remove “race-based measures” from funding consideration, give more weight to bachelor’s degrees earned by low-income students, and include degrees earned by first-year and non-traditional students in the model.