Kerby Anderson
What is happening at the University of Florida might be spreading to other universities. Earlier this month, the university announced that it was ending its experiment with DEI, which stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. The college closed the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer and eliminated DEI positions, thereby saving more than $5 million each year on the controversial program.
DEI is dying in Florida because of the Florida governor and the actions of the Florida legislature, that passed a law prohibiting state funding of DEI programs. When he signed the law, Governor Ron DeSantis observed that “DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination,” and that it thus has “no place in our public institutions.”
Still the legal actions by the governor and legislature might have met resistance if not for the current president of the University of Florida. Ben Sasse left his position as US Senator to become the new university president. “Last year, in his inaugural address, Sasse made it clear that universities ought not to be ‘in the business of advancing either a theology of the right, or a theology of the left.’”
Critics of DEI argue that it is often a “Trojan horse” used to smuggle all sorts of radical leftist ideas onto campus. It may still be too much to ask our universities to teach the founding principles of this nation. I don’t expect to hear any time soon that professors have required students to read the Declaration, the Constitution, or the Federalist Papers.
Nevertheless, removing some of the toxic ideas spread on campus through DEI and critical race theory is an important first step in eliminating indoctrination and promoting true education.