Kent State University Rebrands DEI Efforts as Ohio Lawmakers Debate Banning it Outright
“Division of People, Culture and Belonging”
This same tactic was just recently adopted at the University of Tennessee. Changing the wording doesn’t change the policy. They’re not fooling anyone.
The College Fix reports:
Ohio’s Kent State U. rebrands DEI efforts as lawmakers debate bill to outlaw it
Kent State University has embedded DEI efforts throughout its academics and programming in recent years, creating a new Division of People, Culture and Belonging and adding administrators, faculty, and projects centered around the ideology, a College Fix analysis found.
The new division, established in September, merged the Human Resources department and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices. The rebranding came as Buckeye State lawmakers considered legislation to ban mandatory DEI in higher education.
What’s more, Amoaba Gooden’s new title is vice president of the Division of People, Culture and Belonging, according to her faculty bio. She previously served as vice president of the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion department.
Although the higher education bill recently stalled in the state House, Senate Republican leaders have vowed to keep fighting to pass it.
Sen. Jerry Cirino, the lead sponsor of the bill, told News 5 Cleveland last week that he believes there is “tremendous support in the House.” His office did not respond to The College Fix’s requests in the past week for an update on the bill and questions about the rebranding of Kent State’s diversity office.
Kent State media relations also did not respond to several requests for comment this week from The Fix, including questions about the legislation and the name change.
In the meantime, the university remains dedicated to DEI.
Each of its 11 colleges employ diversity officers, according to the university’s website. These individuals – some faculty, some staff – “advocate for students of color and underrepresented student populations within their college,” it states.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
“Division of People, Culture and Belonging?”
How about a division of Honesty, maturity, learning and equality.
I am so old I remember when they were simply called political officers. Meet the new boss; same as the old boss.
People, culture, belonging.
Woke progressive leftie word salad, meaning anybody who challenges them is racist.
Democrats say, ‘Government is the only thing we all belong to.’
A more productive approach would be for the State Legislature to set a ratio of non-teaching staff to total staff, and then mandate it upon all public higher education institutions. The school can decide whether janitors, HR professionals or DEI functionaries get priority within the cap established by the state legislation. I hope that the ratio will be low enough to prompt some cutbacks in each college. At least the exponential growth of DEI positions would be curtailed.