Assessing the Impact of Anti-DEI Legislation

In February 2023, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an order that compelled the state’s public higher education institutions to stop using diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices as part of their hiring process.

“The innocuous sounding noting of diversity, equity and inclusion has been manipulated to push policies that expressly favor some demographic groups to the detriment of others,” read a memo sent to state institutions including colleges and universities.

Texas universities were quick to comply.

Within weeks of Abbott’s order, the University of Houston announced that it would no longer consider DEI statements in its hiring practices.

The Austin-based University of Texas System (UT) announced that it was at least temporarily halting any policies that promote diversity, equity and inclusion at its 13 university and health campuses.

More than 18 months after Abbott’s mandate, ABC News assessed the repercussions.

“Universities across the country have transformed at the command of anti-diversity, equity and inclusion legislation,” wrote ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca, noting that at least eight other states (Alabama, Florida, Idaho, lowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah) have enacted legislation that restrict DEI efforts.

At the University of Texas-Austin, for instance, “the legislation led to resource cancellations, office closures and staff firings—pushing some students to create alternatives to their school’s defunct diversity programs,” wrote Alfonseca.

Monarch was one of those programs. The on-campus student resource for undocumented and temporary status students hosted workshops, provided mental health resources at little to no cost, career fairs geared toward undocumented students, held panel discussions with undocumented graduates and offered a donor-based scholarship, according to ABC News.

Alicia Moreno was the Monarch student program coordinator, and was among the roughly 60 UT employees whose positions were terminated when the school pulled the plug on its DEI offices and initiatives.

The workshops, career fairs and other resources the program offered “[were] the things that I would help students navigate,” Moreno told ABC News. “Like working with campus partners to create resources and help students understand what their options were because many students that I heard—before they ran into Monarch—they believed their options were really slim.”

UT Austin also shuttered offices including its Multicultural Engagement Center and the Fearless Leadership Institute, Alfonseca wrote, adding that UT Austin “is not the only school facing these [DEI-related] restrictions.

“Schools across the state—and across the country—have seen similar mass closures and firings following the implementation of anti-DEI legislation.”

Just days before the ABC News piece was published online, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) issued a statement emphasizing the role of DEI in talent decisions at colleges and universities.

“When appropriately designed and implemented, diversity, equity, and inclusion criteria for faculty appointment, reappointment, tenure, and promotion are compatible with academic freedom,” according to AAUP, “and may serve as an important means of fostering a diverse and inclusive academic environment.”

AAUP also urged academic institutions to “aim to recruit and retain diverse student and faculty bodies,” while continuing to promote “teaching, research, and service that respond to the needs of a diverse global public.”