Louisiana lawmakers target DEI on university campuses
8th April 2024 · 0 Comments
By Piper Hutchinson
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) — With supermajorities in both legislative chambers and the backing of a new governor, some conservatives in the Louisiana Legislature are taking aim at colleges and universities with legislation that could eliminate their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
University campuses across the nation have become battlefields for high-profile political culture wars as legislators have put DEI, critical race theory (CRT) and affirmative action in their crosshairs.
Since 2023, at least 82 bills aimed at curbing DEI have been filed across the nation, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s DEI legislation tracker. DEI programs on college campuses seek to aid disadvantaged students, including racial, ethnic and religious minorities, disabled students, veterans and other nontraditional enrollees.
Other bills, such as those signed into law in Florida, have aimed to ban teaching of CRT-influenced courses and other concepts proponents consider divisive. Critical race theory is an advanced academic concept that holds that race is socially constructed, and it examines how legal structures are used to oppress people of color. Most classes that take the theory into consideration are in graduate programs.
Some conservative politicians use CRT as a blanket term when targeting the teaching of slavery or other topics that actually do not apply critical race theory.
House Bill 904, by Rep. Emily Chenevert, R-Baton Rouge, requires school-level reporting of all DEI personnel, programs and spending since 2021 at all Louisiana public K-12 schools, colleges and universities. Chenevert’s bill is not necessary to generate DEI spending reports. Lawmakers often submit requests for information to universities, which they can then make public.
Her bill is similar to a resolution filed last year that was defeated after higher education leaders fought back against it, calling the measure unnecessary.
Attacks on DEI are often premised on the idea that such programs bloat college budgets and increase student debt. A review of DEI initiatives in Florida universities by the Chronicle of Higher Education found no institution devoted more than one percent of its budget on DEI undertakings, with some spending as little as $9,000.
Louisiana schools fall far below Florida in spending in practically every area.
Senate BIll 486, by Sen. Alan Seabaugh, R-Shreveport, prohibits “unlawful discrimination” based on race, color, sex, national origin or ethnicity.
Seabaugh said the bill is designed to eliminate DEI, CRT and affirmative action. Race-based affirmative action, which considers race among other factors in the school admissions processes, was invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court last year.
Unlawful discrimination is defined in the bill as “any unlawful classification that results in an individual being deemed inherently inferior or being denied educational opportunities or employment opportunities because of the individual’s race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex or any subcategory thereof.”
Senate Bill 486 defines “unlawful classification” as either of the following:
• Any program, activity, initiative, event, instruction, class assignment, training, activity, or policy that classifies or groups individuals on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, or any subcategory thereof for the purpose of promoting a certain group as inherently superior or deserving of preferential treatment on the basis of such classification.
• The program named or labeled as “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or any other name or label given to such unlawful classification that is initiated for the purpose of unlawfully classifying groups of individuals as inherently superior or deserving of preferential treatment on the basis of such classification.
Seabaugh said he believed his bill would make any DEI program illegal, regardless of what it is called. LSU’s recently renamed DEI department – now known as the Division of Engagement, Civil Rights and Title IX – earlier this year but otherwise left its programs intact.
“That’s why I didn’t put the I didn’t focus on the name of the program,” Seabaugh said of LSU’s name-change. “I focused on what it actually did.”
Seabaugh said he filed the bill because he has heard of numerous students and faculty who were forced to make statements that “denigrated who they are.”
“Being required to write diversity statements, being required to make land acknowledgement statements before they make presentations, being required to do all of that,” Seabaugh said. “There’s no place for that.”
The bill forbids the use of student fees for DEI programs, meaning the proposal could eliminate programs instituted by student governments as well as those put in place by administrators.
Seabaugh’s bill requires each school to set up an email address to which students, parents and employees can submit reports of unlawful DEI programs, CRT instruction or affirmative action. Each school would also be required to submit an annual report to the governor and Legislature regarding the number of complaints and any resolution, if applicable.
Students who have been harmed by a violation of the bill would also have cause to sue.
This article originally published in the April 8, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
