The University of Wyoming is closing its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and its staff will be reassigned and many of its programs will continue.
The school’s Board of Trustees backed President Ed Seidel’s recommendation Friday to close the office, with Trustee Michelle Sullivan saying they were put in “an impossible situation.” Earlier this year, the Wyoming Legislature — UW’s largest funder — cut the university’s block grant and forbade it from spending that appropriation on the DEI office.
In addition to closing the office and reassigning staff, Seidel said the university will create “a vice provost for faculty, staff and student access, opportunity and well being.” That position will help transition programs previously under the DEI office into new university units.
Programs that are either required or key to UW community success will be maintained, Seidel said, including, but not limited to: “Academic freedom, research freedom, compliance with federal laws — including the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VI, VII and IX — Native American Affairs, the Shepard Symposium, the Latina Youth Conference, and others.”
In a later press release, he added that the university will seek out private funding for “preferential” programs deemed essential to helping students, like the Wyoming Latina Youth Conference and Women in STEM activities.
The Legislature’s decision and the university’s subsequent conversations about how to respond prompted widespread discussion, both in previous board meetings and in other public comments. Seidel noted this in his statement released after Friday’s vote.
“What I can say is that we are moving forward the best we can to meet the expectations of elected officials and the people of Wyoming and continue serving our students and communities,” he said.
UW leaders considered five options for responding to the Legislature’s decision to defund the DEI office. More severe suggestions included laying off all of the employees within the office. On the other end, school leaders could have kept the office, but funded it through private support.
Employment practices
Beyond the DEI office, the university is also changing employment practices, effective immediately.
“We will not allow units of UW to require job candidates to submit statements regarding diversity, equity and inclusion,” Seidel said. “We will not have a requirement for employees to be evaluated on components of diversity, equity and inclusion in the performance evaluation process. These actions reaffirm UW’s commitment to merit-based employment practices including hiring and promotion.”
This aligns with what MIT did recently, ending diversity statements in hiring.
Seidel also plans to look into many other practices listed in a working group report to ensure UW doesn’t encourage preferential treatment. That includes admissions practices, speakers at the university, recruitment, retention, scholarship awards, assistantships, some research programs, summer institutes and student organization structures.
“I am committed to maintaining and enhancing a campus community that promotes success for all, and I encourage all of us to lean into this next chapter for our university,” he said.
What’s in a name?
In prior board meetings, trustees, students, staff and others discussed the meaning of DEI — both to opponents that want to see it eliminated and to the UW community itself.
Seidel’s working group looked into what it believed was the Legislature’s intent when it aimed to eliminate funding for DEI.
The group’s new definition of DEI — which trustees also adopted Friday — included things like promoting programs that give advantages or disadvantages based on race, color, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
The definition also said DEI would mean promoting the “position that the action of a group or an individual is inherently, unconsciously, or implicitly biased, privileged or inherently superior or inferior on the basis of color, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation.”
“There are many things that we do under the umbrella of DEI that do not fit within those definitions,” Board of Trustees Chairman Kermit Brown said Thursday before opening up public comment. “And it’s not the intent of the university to terminate any of those things.”
Efforts to eliminate DEI aren’t about eliminating diversity or inclusivity, according to Megan Degenfelder, the state’s superintendent of public instruction and an ex-officio trustee.
“What we’re talking about here is an extreme interpretation that has really taken over the definition of DEI and made it into this preferential treatment of one race, one gender over another, and then this notion of one race, gender being inherently racist over another,” she said. “That’s what people across the state are very angry about and they don’t want to see at their university.”
Trustees, Seidel and Degenfelder noted the differences between UW and many other universities across the country. For example, Seidel said, UW never had admissions policies that considered an applicant’s race, which the U.S. Supreme Court found to be illegal for institutions like Harvard. The student vigil for recent deaths in Israel and Gaza was another example trustees noted. In contrast to protests at some other college campuses, the vigil remained peaceful.
Public comment
As was the case in March, staff, students and alumni reiterated passionate support for the DEI office on Thursday. They talked about how it’s helped them, could help others and supports diverse members of the university, including veterans, people with disabilities, Native Americans and members of the LGBTQ+ community. They talked about the importance of having a central office where all these groups could go for help.
“This is not about an agenda,” said UW student Paula Medina. “This is about students having a place on campus — students who previously have not had places on campus.”
Unlike the March meeting, though, there was opposition to the DEI office: three current and former Natrona County Moms for Liberty members.
“DEI fosters a culture of groupthink, fear, resentment, entitlement, and increasingly distrust of leaders and institutions,” said Jenifer Hopkins, former Moms for Liberty and current Natrona County school board member. “Diversity simply means replacing some members with others with different characteristics.”
The office is at odds with American ideals of meritocracy, added fellow school board member Mary Schmidt. Beyond that, Schmidt said the true intent of DEI departments isn’t to promote diversity, but “to facilitate a societal shift in the communities of Wyoming through the promotion of gender chaos.”
She referenced UW’s fight to stop a preacher from tabling at the university for targeting a transgender student with a sign, the lawsuit over that student’s admission into a UW sorority, and Seidel’s statement when Sen. Cynthia Lummis was booed for her commencement speech stating that there were only two genders.
Hopkins and Schmidt’s comments were met with a few boos. Another commenter speaking in support of DEI was met with applause. That stopped after a little scolding, though.
“The booing, the applause is inappropriate on both sides, so I would appreciate it if you would just knock it off,” Brown said.
There was also pushback to the trio’s anti-DEI claims, including from Michelle Mason, who’s getting a second Ph.D. at UW while writing about power dynamics in academia. The concerns are more about the label of DEI than the work, she said, similar to critical race theory a few years ago.
“We do not push an agenda, people come to our office asking for services,” she said. “Just because the Legislature has a warped view of what DEI is does not make it true.”
And finally, there were concerns about how actions that affect DEI programs could harm the institution’s ability to attract and retain students and employees.
“I would say please think not only about what the state or the working group thinks, but also think about what the students think,” said Kameron Murfitt, president of the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming.
He referenced a spring student issue survey, which found that half of participating students felt there wasn’t enough being done to support LGBTQ+ students. Another third weren’t sure. To support that group further, students wrote in support for DEI office.
Both Natrona County Moms for Liberty Chapter Chair Sarah Bieber and several students noted that many of the programs under the DEI office — like multicultural affairs, ADA compliance and Title VI — have helped students for decades before finding a home in the office that only formed in 2017.
Perhaps, they suggested, they could simply exist again without being under those contentious three letters.
This story has been updated with more information since it was initially posted. -Ed
Look what Florida and Texas does and then copy and paste. That’s our politicians.
Some of these decisions should be made by the public. We can’t trust the right wing numbskulls that are our legislators.
Really interesting how the narrative has flipped so rather than expressing support for people who are traditionally under served, underrepresented, and often on the receiving end of financial and career discrimination, now DEI is pushing “an agenda” to give those people “preferential treatment.” As one who knows what it’s like to be on the receiving end, I can guarantee you that no amount of DEI will ever counter the status quo.
Just goes to show: dogwhistle politics work, esp. in Wyoming.
I guess it is hard to listen to those who remain from the Black 14. By withdrawing from the Social Justice Summer Institute this year, they demonstrated to the university’s office of general counsel’s what ethical leadership looks like.
It appears no funds were saved by this action. It was simply shifting employees into different departments to keep them on the payroll as political correctness rules.
Nothing of merit was accomplished by this action from start to finish.
Nothing of merit was accomplished by listening to the bigotry that is represented by our state “leaders”
This story has left me with a sense of emptiness. It was clearly the agenda and intent of the legislature that the wonderful potential for everyone in Wyoming to contribute, be valued and embraced be confined to its own vision. In diversity there is strength, in equity there is equality, and in inclusion there is community. I am thankful that the trustees are committed to navigating through all of this, but there is no doubt that the legislature will seek to make the “impossible situation” even more so.
This is another example of unqualified, regressive politicians forcing their biases onto an educational institution. They scream “Freedom” for their causes, but deny freedom to those with whom they disagree.
The main purpose of colleges used to be educating people to be useful members of society. UW did that for me. I believe universities have let notions of DEI, critical race theory, equality, etc. rob them of time and money for addressing that purpose. Ditto emphasis on research rather than teaching fundamentals and principles. Young people are avoiding higher education for good reason!
Wow. Our legislators really know how to move THEIR top priorities to the top of THEIR agenda!!! Shame on you, again.
Why not lay them off? No reason to keep bloated payroll.
You don’t even know what they do. You just hate other people
As a 24 year UW faculty, I can assure you there are a lot of “bloated” employees at UW that are not necessary. The thought of assimilating more people from roles that are not necessary, into even less necessary roles at a very high salary.. is disgusting.
Do the legislators understand the difference between Equality and Equity. Equality means that everyone is treated the same way. Equity means that everyone is provided specific resources they need to be successful. The State is practicing Equity when it allows and provides resources to Veterans, who certainly deserve it. The State provides Equity when it purchases a special lefthanded scissor for a lefthanded employee. Equity touches all of us, not just the LGBTQ+ community, but seniors who get reduced meals at senior centers around our state.
The argument that the Legislature makes is bogus. If they want to do away with equity and inclusion, let’s do away with it completely and not just selectively and see how many voters will reelect them in November.
Listen Ralph. Every citizen male/female white black brown any skin color has exactly same rights to all services. Has had for decades. More one group has been placed on higher platform or given more rights the less these rights are sought out. Everything has to be given on gold plate so they feel “special”. We need to cut back. All this schooling just seems to have kicked out a bunch of idiots actually. We have taken away the COMMON SENSE that really makes one achieve higher levels in life
Your ignorance is showing Larry.
In no way has there been equal treatment of all people. Has never happened. It never will as long as there are people who think like you.
True story. Unfortunately.