Higher education leaders and faculty members are pushing back against the Louisiana Republican Party’s call for lawmakers to get rid of campus diversity departments and to restrict how racism is studied, warning it would damage the state’s colleges and universities and make it harder for them to compete with institutions nationally.
The resolution, passed by voice vote at a state party meeting last month, asks the Legislature to pass laws removing “diversity, equity and inclusion” departments in all institutions of higher learning within the state.
It calls DEI departments a “threat to academic freedom” and says administrators should “maintain institutional neutrality on controversial political questions extraneous to the business of educating students”.
But many higher education leaders and professors say such a law would undermine their universities’ missions and potentially run afoul of national standards.
DEI departments are typically task forces of diverse staff members with a stated goal of bringing about ethical or cultural changes to improve the student and faculty experience at those institutions. The state GOP attacked the concept as “divisive”, specifically targeting the DEI departments for the LSU and University of Louisiana systems.
University of Louisiana System president Jim Henderson dismissed the state’s GOP resolution in a statement, calling it “boilerplate rhetoric.”
“False narratives and caricatures of our work will not detract from our efforts to advance economic vitality and secure the future for our state through education, workforce development, and research,” he said. “A key part of our mission is empowering individuals, employers, and communities to compete and flourish in a global economy. The people of Louisiana deserve nothing less.”
The state Republican resolution singled out LSU’s diversity statement for saying “we must recognize and reflect on the inglorious aspects of our history.”
LSU officials have declined to comment on the resolution, but faculty members criticized it.
“I assume the resolution is simply red meat for the GOP’s base and has no chance of becoming law,” said history professor Meredith Veldman, who is secretary of the Faculty Senate.
The Louisiana Conference of the American Association of University Professors passed its own resolution to reject “any attempts by bodies external to the faculty to restrict or dictate university curriculum on any matter.”
The president of the conference, Tom Miller, warned that such interference by the Legislature could make recruiting academics difficult.
“With a threat to academic freedom, you’re going to have the most talented faculty not wanting to come here because the research that they want to pursue can be suddenly stopped if it becomes an irritant to sources within or outside the institution,” Miller said. “In terms of value to the public, that’s probably the one thing that’s most destructive and reduces the value of our efforts.”
The state GOP’s resolution echoes laws proposed in other states. Florida lawmakers, for example, are considering a bill to prohibit universities from using state or federal money on programs or activities “that advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
No such bills have been proposed for the ongoing legislative session in Louisiana.
But on the same general topic, state Rep. Valarie Hodges is sponsoring a resolution asking schools ranging from K-12 to college to submit reports on “all campus programs and activities related to critical race theory; diversity, equity, and inclusion; or transformative social emotional learning.”
Such resolutions don’t have the effect of law. The measure, set to be heard by the House education committee, hasn’t yet been considered.
Critics of campus diversity programs say they create unnecessary bureaucracy while exacerbating racial and political tensions.
“The resolution does not prohibit the teaching of racism, it prohibits the teaching of neo-Marxist historical interpretations which are easy to prove as false,” Louisiana Republican Party Chairman Louis Gurvich said in an interview Monday. “It suggests that we should not have vast bureaucracies devoted to DEI because it detracts from real learning.”
Louisiana Commissioner of Higher Education Kim Hunter Reed argues that erasing racial gaps in educational achievement is an important step in achieving the state’s strategic goal of doubling the number of working adults with post-high school credentials.
“Diversity in education and in the workforce is a great asset, but we know that there are disparities in educational attainment in this state and in this nation,” she said.
Reed said DEI programs foster an environment of acceptance that is key to developing talented students who can thrive in their chosen professional fields.
“Programs that support student success and strengthen a sense of belonging on campus and in the wider community are important and impactful, yielding positive results in student completion,” she said. “That is our focus and our shared mission in higher education: to develop all talent and to ensure that our students are well prepared to lead as active citizens and contribute to our knowledge-based society.”
Adam Norris, chief communications officer at the University of New Orleans, pointed to Henderson’s statement when asked about the state GOP resolution but added that “diversity, equity and inclusion are core values of our institution.”
Gurvich says universities should continue to teach about historical racism, just not through departments dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion.
“DEI is not doing students any good, and it’s a bad interpretation of our history,” he said. “The teaching of periods of American history in which racism was a real problem, we do not seek to prohibit that. In fact, we seek to encourage it because it is a part of our history.”
Some administrators and professors said they worry about how the changes urged by the state Republican Party would bleed into their classrooms.
“Have the resolution’s advocates considered all its implications?” asked Veldman, the LSU history professor. “If we were prohibited from discussing racism, I would not be able to teach my students about the Holocaust.”
Kerii Landry-Thomas, associate vice chancellor for equity, inclusion and Title IX at Southern University Law Center, argued the tactics outlined in the state GOP resolution would jeopardize the school’s academic standing. She said American Bar Association standards require accredited law schools to “provide education to law students on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism” at least twice during their legal program.
“Every law school across the country has the same mandate, and that falls right in line with not only Southern University Law Center’s mission to provide access and opportunity for a diverse group of students, but for all institutions,” she said. “The goal of higher ed is to equip our students to be productive, effective, and go out in the world and thrive.”
Landry-Thomas said she thinks that if lawmakers had more dialogue with university leaders, they would see how inclusion initiatives help higher education.
“Louisiana has always walked its own line, and I just hope the legislators in our communities and state continue to walk their own line and do not fall in with what others are doing,” she said. “I welcome our Republican representatives to think outside the box and to engage with the practitioners of this work to really get a better sense of what’s going on in these offices.”
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