On March 1st, 2024, the University of Florida (“the University”) released a memo announcing its intention to eliminate its chief diversity officer position, along with its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) staff.¹ The University also halted all contracts involving DEI initiatives.² In total, the removal of the DEI program resulted in the dismissal of thirteen full-time DEI staff positions.³ Additionally, fifteen administrative appointments for faculty were ended.⁴ These appointments were performed, in addition to the faculty members’ regular duties.⁵

Along with the firings, $5 million that had been earmarked for DEI initiatives were moved to a faculty recruitment fund.⁶ Among the initiatives being defunded are the Office of Graduate Diversity Initiatives and SF2UF, a bridge program that seeks to increase the number of minority Santa Fe College transfer students.⁷ The Center for Inclusion and Multicultural Engagement, which runs first-year transition programs, diversity training workshops, a yearly diversity symposium, and a multicultural mentor program also saw its funding cut.⁸ The aforementioned programs are just a few of the plethora of DEI focused initiatives cut by the University as a result of this policy.

The University’s actions stem from a new law passed in 2023 by Governor Ron DeSantis.⁹ SB 266 banned Florida’s public colleges and universities from spending money on DEI programs and limited what could be taught in the state’s higher education institutions, stating that “general education courses can’t distort significant historical events or include a curriculum that teaches identity politics.”¹⁰ Specifically, the law outlined the following:

[A] Florida College System Institution, state university, Florida College System direct-support organization, or state university direct-support organization may not expend any state or federal funds to promote, support, or maintain any programs or campus activities that…advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or promote or engage in political or social activism.¹¹

Florida is not the only state that is pushing these types of laws. Greg Abbott, Texas’ governor, recently signed a bill into law that requires all state-funded colleges and universities to close their DEI offices.¹² Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, will soon receive a bill that would ban all government and universities from having offices dedicated to promoting diversity.¹³ In total, Republican politicians have introduced at least sixty-five bills to limit DEI in higher education in twenty-five states and Congress, with eight of them becoming law.¹⁴

The Supreme Court precedent has long acknowledged that states, colleges, and universities have a compelling interest in maintaining a diverse student body in order to increase educational excellence.¹⁵ With this legal backing, DEI programs have been able to recruit and retain BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other underrepresented faculty and students to repair decades of discriminatory policies and practices that excluded them from higher education.¹⁶ The current anti-DEI efforts are robbing current students of access to resources and opportunities that would help them to achieve greater success in higher education. It is crucial that supporters of DEI rebut the misinformation being spread about these initiatives and show how beneficial they truly are in a country that still has systemic discriminatory and racist practices entrenched in its institutions.

1 The Associated Press, U. of Florida axes DEI office under GOP-led law aimed at ridding similar programs, NPR (March 4, 2024), https://www.npr.org/2024/03/04/1235725631/university-florida-cuts-dei-office.

2 Id.

3 Alissa Gary, UF eliminates diversity, equity and inclusion offices, THE INDEPENDENT FLORIDA ALLIGATOR (March 1, 2024), https://www.alligator.org/article/2024/03/uf-eliminates-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-offices.

4 Ryan Wyatt Turbeville, University of Florida terminates all DEI employees to comply with state regulation, WJCB (March 1, 2024), https://www.wcjb.com/2024/03/01/university-florida-terminates-all-dei-employees-accordance- with-state-regulation/.

5 Id.

6 The Associated Press, supra note 1.

7 Zoey Thomas, Florida shut down state funding for diversity, equity and inclusion. These UF programs could be affected, THE INDEPENDENT FLORIDA ALLIGATOR (January 29, 2024), https://www.alligator.org/article/2024/01/dei.

8 Id.

9 The Associated Press, supra note 1.

10 Jaclyn Diaz, Florida Gov. DeSantis signs a bill banning DEI initiatives in public colleges, NPR (May 15, 2023), https://www.npr.org/2023/05/15/1176210007/florida-ron-desantis-dei-ban-diversity; CS/CS/CS/SB 266: Higher Education, THE FLORIDA SENATE, Accessed: March 18, 2024, https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/266/?Tab=BillText.

11 CS/CS/CS/SB 266: Higher Education, THE FLORIDA SENATE 1, 11 (2023), https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/266/BillText/er/PDF.

12 Char Adams and Nigel Chiwaya, Map: See which states have introduced or passed anti-DEI bills, NBC NEWS (March 2, 2024), https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/anti-dei-bills-states-republican-lawmakers-map- rcna140756.

13 Id.

14 Leah Watson, Anti-DEI Efforts Are the Latest Attack on Racial Equity and Free Speech, ACLU (February 14, 2024), https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/anti-dei-efforts-are-the-latest-attack-on-racial-equity-and-free-speech.

15 Lynn Pasquerella, A Compelling Interest: The inextricable link between equity and excellence, AAC&U (last visited Apr. 20, 2024), https://www.aacu.org/liberaleducation/articles/a-compelling-interest.

16 Watson, supra note 14.