U. Wisconsin Not Cutting DEI Positions as Republicans Cut Their Budget by $32 Million
“We are not giving UW that money unless they work with us to eliminate all this racial preferences and all the things that are rampant on college campuses”
It’s pretty clear that the left is not going to give up this agenda without a battle.
The College Fix reports:
Wisc. universities keep DEI positions despite GOP gutting budget by $32 million
University of Wisconsin campus leaders have not cut diversity, equity and inclusion positions from their campuses despite losing $32 million in funding from the GOP-led state legislature earlier this summer in an effort to see such programs axed.
However, system leaders are in the process of requesting a partial reimbursement to the tune of $15 million from the Wisconsin State Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee to fund non-DEI, workforce development-related positions, which state lawmakers left open as an option to recoup some of the cuts.
“As requested by the legislature, we will present a compelling funding proposal to invest in high-demand programs that benefit our workforce so that Wisconsin can compete in the war for talent and move the state forward,” Mark Pitsch, UW System’s director of media relations, said via email to The College Fix.
In early July, Gov. Tony Evers vetoed the Republican attempt to eliminate 188 UW System DEI jobs, but the $32 million in budget cuts remained in the budget, the Cap Times reported.
“The budget includes a separate provision to pull out $32 million from the UW System budget, roughly the amount the UW System spends on DEI efforts, and require it be spent on efforts to bolster the state’s workforce,” the Times reported.
According to Sean Nelson, the system’s vice president of finance and administration, it remains unclear if the Wisconsin legislature will support UW’s request focused on supporting engineering, data, science, and nursing programs, the Associated Press reported Aug. 22.
At least one leading Republican opposes increasing funding until DEI programs are defunded.
“We are not giving UW that money unless they work with us to eliminate all this racial preferences and all the things that are rampant on college campuses,” Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said to WISN-AM.
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Even where DEI offices have been legally banned, university administrators openly brag about how they will evade the law.
Texas passed SB17, which unambiguously bans and defunds DEI offices at state universities. So, for instance, what’s the plan for UT Dallas? Is it going close down its sprawling Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (https://odei.utdallas.edu/ )?
Dream on. UTD’s president has openly stated that *none* of these DEI employees will lose their jobs:
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2023/08/17/no-one-is-going-to-lose-a-job-in-response-to-dei-ban-ut-dallas-president-says/
“No one will lose a job at UTD. They might be in a different job,” Benson said in an interview with the [Dallas Morning]NewsNews. “If you knew what we did, rather than what we call it, I think you’d admire it and you’d admire the people who [do] it.”
But wink-wink, nod-nod, he promises that UTD will obey SB17. Baloney. They are just going to rearrange the deck chairs and keep doing exactly what the Legislature has forbidden. Because, of course, they know better than those icky state legislators.
Unfortunately, due to the evisceration of SB17 by the Phelan [RINO] machine, they probably will get away with it — SB17 has no meaningful enforcement provisions, and administrators who willfully violate it face no sanction whatsoever.
Makes horrid sense. DEI has higher priority than, say, higher mathematics and the hard sciences of chemistry, biology & physics. The history courses are already corrupted by the DEI ideology so those would likely remain in their befouled place.