KU has eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion positions and programs and is directing employees to remove gender-identifying pronouns from their email signatures before the end of the month in response to state legislation.
A letter from Chancellor Doug Girod and other university leaders said the school would comply with a directive from the Kansas Board of Regents enforcing the provision passed in the Legislature’s spending bill.
The bill requires the elimination of positions, programs, policies and grants related to DEI, plus the removal of pronouns from email signatures, webpages, Zoom screen IDs or any other form of university communication.
“Each Jayhawk contributes to the community of learning and growth that is KU,” the letter says. “Our community is founded on the respect and support we each provide to others.”
Some changes, in response to both state and federal directives, have already become evident on KU’s website over recent months.
Information about the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging is no longer available on KU’s website. It has been replaced by an Impact and Belonging team.
A banner at the top of the KU Office of Civil Rights & Title IX webpage, among others, reads: “This content is being reviewed in light of recent changes to federal guidance.” And a webpage for the Toni Johnson Center for Racial and Social Justice is no longer accessible.
The university has also removed an online campus map that previously provided locations of all-gender restrooms, lactation rooms and reflection rooms.
KU students earlier this year said if the university were to comply with the anti-DEI provisions it would create a hostile environment for marginalized communities and could drive down enrollment. They urged KU to resist compliance, warning that recent decisions signal a troubling shift in KU’s posture towards marginalized students.
Recent years have seen multiple challenges to KU’s DEI programs.
Last year, the Kansas Legislature passed a law tying $35.7 million to a requirement forbidding employment and admissions decisions to be based on diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
In September, three KU centers focused on diversity and equity were combined with each other and another campus center to create the Student Engagement Center. That meant the end of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity, and the Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity.
In the letter to campus employees on Tuesday, administrators instructed recipients to remove pronouns from emails, Zoom IDs “and any other form of university communications.” The deadline to do so is July 31, according to the letter.
The letter tells supervisors that if their employees do not comply by the deadline, they should contact human resources for “guidance on appropriate next steps.”
“If you know of a student, staff, or faculty member who needs assistance as a result of this new requirement, please consider submitting a Support and Care referral,” the letter stated.
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Cuyler Dunn (he/him), a contributor to The Lawrence Times since April 2022, is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism. He is a graduate of Lawrence High School where he was the editor-in-chief of the school’s newspaper, The Budget, and was named the 2022 Kansas High School Journalist of the Year. Read his complete bio here. Read more of his work for the Times here.
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