According to the Texas Tribune, The University of Texas at Austin has laid off dozens of employees who used to work in diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
The university fired about 60 people, and some of the offices where they worked are expected to close by May 31st.
The changes aim to bring the university into fuller compliance with Senate Bill 17, a state law approved last year that bans DEI initiatives in public universities and went into effect in January.
The Law
The law at the heart of this development states in part that an “institution of higher education may not establish or maintain a diversity, equity, and inclusion office or hire or assign an employee of the institution, or contract with a third party, to perform the duties of a diversity, equity, and inclusion office,” says College Fix.
The law makes it easier for the university to do what they might agree needs to happen.
Republican-led states across the country, from Florida to Alabama, have enacted bans on DEI in higher education amid criticism of schools prioritizing identity over education and merit, Daily Wire reports.
The Texas Tribune reported that the “AAUP and NAACP said they had ‘heightened concerns’ about the layoffs because many of the employees who were fired had been recently reassigned to positions not related to DEI. The groups’ letter said they will ‘continue to accumulate information to address what we believe to be potential attacks on First Amendment Freedoms.’”
The problem for them is probably the fact that it’s a niche job for minorities, but it’s also employment for the grievance army spreading Marxism throughout our universities. It’s become a cudgel where students are afraid to speak freely. That’s not the mission of universities.
Taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to pay for this. It’s about freedom, baby.
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