Despite legislative ban, Texas public universities still implementing DEI policies

Despite a state legislative ban, Texas public universities are still implementing so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, state lawmakers have found.

Several institutions renamed or relaunched new units under a different name to continue implementing DEI policies, lawmakers found. Others are requiring DEI credits in order to be eligible to receive undergraduate degrees, according to two reports.

As a result, state law makers have frozen increased funding requests for all public higher education institutions in the state.

State Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, filed the state’s first DEI ban in higher public education institutions, SB 17, in the last legislative session. After passing the state legislature and being signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott, the law became effective Jan. 1, 2024. It prohibits higher education institutions from spending state-appropriated funds on DEI policies. It also requires governing boards to certify institutions are in compliance with the law.

Last year, higher education institutions began eliminating DEI positions and changing hiring practices in order to comply with the law, The Center Square reported.

However, complaints from constituents continued to roll in claiming some higher education institutions in Texas weren’t complying with state law. In response, Creighton and state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, launched an investigation. Creighton chairs the Senate Education Committee and Bettencourt chairs the Senate Finance Higher Education Work Group.

They sent a letter to the boards of regents at Texas public universities stating that reports they received “were not found to be satisfactory.”

Texas Education Code “directs governing boards to ensure each member institution does not ‘establish or maintain’ a DEI office – this includes renaming, relaunching or reauthorizing a DEI unit under the guise of a different name. We have found this to be the case in numerous instances, particularly at our health-related institutions,” they said.

As a result, “due to these valid findings of noncompliance, requests for increases in state funds for all public institutions of higher education this legislative session are now frozen at levels from the previous biennium,” they said.

They also instructed the regents to provide “clear and indisputable evidence that DEI programming has been fully eliminated” in their institutions in compliance with the law.

Failure to do so will result in loss of funding, they said.

They sent the letter after two major reports were issued highlighting DEI programs in higher education institutions nationwide, including in Texas.

One report published by Speech First, a free speech advocacy group, found that 67% of U.S. colleges and universities “require students to take a DEI-related class to graduate.”

Among them are 10 in Texas: Baylor University, Rice University, Southern Methodist University, Texas Tech University, the University of Texas’ Austin, El Paso and San Antonio campuses, Trinity University in San Antonio, University of Houston and the University of North Texas.

The Goldwater Institute published a report analyzing $1 billion worth of federal grants that had been allocated to promote DEI programs in K-12 schools and universities nationwide under the Biden administration. The report sought to quantify “the financial implications of these DEI mandates on students and state taxpayers.”

It identified public universities from at least 30 states that require all undergraduate students to complete a DEI course “to even be allowed to graduate with a degree from a state taxpayer-funded institution.”

In Texas, they include Texas Tech University, the University of Texas-Austin and El Paso campuses, and University of Houston-downtown. The report breaks down the cost to taxpayers in the thousands of dollars per student to comply with the DEI credit requirements, including in Texas.

In addition to raising concerns about higher education institutions, Creighton filed another bill this legislative session to ban DEI policies in K-12 public schools, The Center Square reported.