University of North Texas Dissolves the DEI Office
“UNT now becomes the first Texas university to publicly announce the dismantling of its DEI offices following the passage of SB 17”
It looks like Texas is taking a page out of the new Florida playbook.
The Texan reports:
University of North Texas Announces Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office is ‘Dissolved’
In the wake of the Texas Legislature passing a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices and pressure from elected state officials, many universities have had to grapple with shuttering the doors of their social justice-focused departments. One university in Denton has already announced its plans to “dissolve” and reorganize a multitude of departments.
The University of North Texas (UNT), located in Denton, serves a population of over 42,000 students.
Recently, UNT President Neal Smatresk announced the school’s response to Senate Bill (SB) 17 to the public.
The posted statement includes the plans for the Vice President for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access to retire from their position; the office be “dissolved” as well as other “units” within that office to be “transferred” to other departments.
“Senior administrators and I are doing our best to create a plan that ensures we will continue to support all our community members’ needs and take advantage of the talented staff members currently within the division by working to reassign them throughout the university in ways that improve our academic community,” Smatresk wrote.
UNT now becomes the first Texas university to publicly announce the dismantling of its DEI offices following the passage of SB 17.
The school’s Title IX Equal Employment Opportunity, and Affirmative Action departments were also mentioned in the announcement as being transferred to the Division of Finance and Administration.
Additionally, the Multicultural Center, Pride Alliance, and “all related programs” were noted as being restructured to “comply with SB 17 and federal law.”
SB 17 was a major piece of legislation this past session, and it garnered a wide range of responses from both supporters and opponents.
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I hope dissolved with nitric acid.
“take advantage of the talented staff members currently within the division by working to reassign them throughout the university”
In other words, DEI will continue, just under other names/departments.
Yup. Thanks to the Phelan machine (group of RINOs who control the Texas House by allying with Dems), all meaningful enforcement was stripped out of SB17. So other than retiring the DEI deans / VP’s and “closing” those departments, the actual DEI bureaucrats are just being moved around.
Another dodge my sources say is coming is to recharacterize DEI activities as “research,” in order to take advantage of a loophole inserted by the Phelan machine.
It’s possible that the various boards of regents will implement serious SB17 edicts. But given that these potted plants allowed the DEI cancer to metastasize at their schools in the first place, I’m not holding my breath.
or the dregs in the barrel will, unfortunately, find their way to Cornell, which has become noted for accepting them with open arms
The test will be individual job descriptions and performance metrics. An honest person with an advanced degree in student affairs could take a job with a university. If the job description calls for promoting “social justice” and the person’s KPIs push certain work, it is understandable where the person will put emphasis. Now, if the university reorganizes and the person does an internal transfer to a different department, there is no reason to assume that the person will not apply educational background and talents to that new role. The reorganization could be potentially liberating to workers who did not buy the woke dogma 100%.