Civil Rights Groups Push Back Against Wave of Anti-DEI Bills

Mar 18

At the core of GIMA’s work is equity; the idea that life could be fair regardless of one’s race, creed, social status, economic status, and identity. It could be fair - it isn’t. Racism still marginalizes people of color. While we focus on housing and believe it is the core social determinant of health issue, racism looms large as a primary cause of housing disparities.

I write this in part to explain both this blog post and my work on the outcomes of Senate Bill 202. Ostensibly, the bill is about tenure at Indiana public universities. In reality, it’s an attempt to delegitimize DEI efforts on college campuses throughout the state. It is racist legislation.

Indiana is the latest in a nationwide movement to legislate racism. SB202, now SEA202 since Governor Holcomb signed the bill into law, requires universities to submit their DEI budgets to the legislature, prohibits universities from requiring applicants to sign anti-discrimination statements, and says that if an applicant submits any statement regarding DEI “or related topics,” the institution can’t grant admission, hiring or tenure “on the basis of viewpoints expressed in the pledge or statement.” In addition, colleges have to submit and justify their spending on diversity to the legislature. My colleague Professor Russ Skiba aptly calls these requirements Orwellian. To me, they’re downright scary.

A group of civic, academic, and religious leaders asked to meet with Holcomb before signing the bill. He refused.

Bill author, Senator Spencer Deery (R) Lafayette, insists that the intention of the bill is to foster diversity on campuses, allowing conservative voices to be part of the academic discourse. I agree that fostering increased diversity on college campuses is a good thing. But how is squelching diversity help to foster diversity? Seems like a paradox to me.

Much of the bill’s language is taken verbatim from Florida legislation and is part of a national movement to kill DEI efforts. This national article from the Chronicle of Higher Education describes a “…new wave of legislation targeting diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education” with efforts in Alabama, Indiana, Florida, Utah, and Wyoming.

The author writes, “In a failed scramble to stop Senate Bill 202, an Indiana coalition called the University Alliance for Racial Justice said that, while it opposed the threatened ‘loss of tenure’ and other ramifications faculty members had decried, ‘what is most egregious about the bill is the fact that such sanctions would be imposed as a consequence for speaking about discrimination and racism in higher education classes in the state of Indiana.’”

I am concerned about the multitude of national initiatives to legislate state issues. These powerful and well-funded groups use local legislators to do their bidding. Sometimes, the legislators are ignorant of the potential ramifications of the bills they introduce. I hope this is the case with Senator Deery. Regardless, we need to send a clear message to our elected leaders that we are paying attention to the true impact of their legislation and will cry foul when they overstep. Isn’t that how democracy works?

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