When Texas college students return to their campuses after the winter break, they’ll discover the lights are still off in their campuses’ diversity offices.
That’s because a new law that outlaws such work at the state’s higher education institutions goes into effect, Jan. 1.
Another 29 laws also will go into effect in the new year that aim to change the economy, tax codes and the criminal justice system.
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Dissolving diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at public universities: Senate Bill 17 requires public universities to end so-called diversity, equity and inclusion work. Universities will also be unable to offer training on diversity and inclusion for its faculty and staff, or require diversity statements in hiring processes. Universities must also confirm to the Legislature between legislative sessions that they are in full compliance.
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The law’s restrictions do not apply to class instruction, materials needed for federal grant applications or student organizations on campuses, but multiple university officials have said the law has made hiring new faculty more difficult.
Lone Star is a rating.
They don’t care. Everything’s bigger in Texas. Including the delusion that Texas is great.
I’ve never seen a larger group of insecure people desperately overcompensating. So, to be fair, they are number one in that sense.
Great laugh to start the day. Thanks so much!
And I’d say it’s still overrated.
The cruelty is the point
Makes sense that a state that originally declared independence from Mexico because they wanted to keep up the institution of slavery also doesn’t want a diverse university population.
Fun (in the loosest sense of the word) fact: The Oklahoma panhandle also exists because Texas wanted to keep slavery.
Is the Oklahoma panhandle a euphemism for a gentleman’s part?
In case you’re not meme’ing, its because the strip of land makes Oklahoma look like a pan, with it as the handle of it.
Asshats seem to do this in the death throes of failed ideas. Lose a case and double down with a pile of new laws that take a decade to untangle in the courts.
This is 100% a replay of racists’ loss on segregation, and it’s happening in both red and blue states on separate issues: as bigots in red stateslose on human rights for classes they dislike and classists in blue states lose the rich having the monopoly on force/self-defense.
Shit states gonna shit state.
They are a rough draft. It’s the sandbox for just how awful a government can treat it’s citizens before they revolt. So far it’s working really well. Except the final draft in 2024.
Can we let them have their freedom so I can stop funneling my tax dollars to their autocratic christofascist fucking messes?
Seriously… you’re right. I’m a coastal elite douchebag. You were right all along. I get it now. By all means, please go your own way. Don’t let the door hit your electrical grid on the way out…
Let’s give the state back to Mexico and let them sort it out
Republicans love small government. /s
Small Government! Freedom!
While I think this law is overall a bad thing, ending diversity statements is a good thing. They add unnecessary work to an already onerous application process, and mostly serve to just serve to exclude lower class applicants of any race who don’t know the right way to write a diversity statement. In practice they’re mostly a class signifier and should be abolished.
Ah yes those poor dumb University hopefuls who don’t know how to use google because they are too impoverished to learn how to use a computer and have too much lead poisoning impacted impairments to learn to write a basic essay… To apply for University…
Did they get rid of Legacy admissions by any chance?
I mean, you can’t just Google how to write a diversity statement in a way that matches what a university hiring committee wants. It’s like googling how to write an email as a rich alumnus. It’s a deep culture that most people don’t have access to.
Yes you can. You can actually specify which specific University you are applying to on a search and usually get fairly specific advice and monetarily or connection lacking perspective University students basically make a job and practice of learning that shit for obtaining scholarships and those who feel they want to give back make their stuff known. The ability to research well is selective but so is requiring excellent grades and tests.
Saying “This job requiring a cover letter disadvantages people because writing cover letters is hard” for a highly competitive job that requires a high level of aptitude in writing as a basic requirement for getting the job is kind of a joke. Meanwhile the fast tracks and leg ups for kids based strictly on who their parents are still in place and represent an actual nepotism problem that creates a privileged class that no manner of personal merit will allow someone to benefit from.
An unpopular opinion I’m sure (for reasons), but do these offices actually achieve anything besides bloating up the already obese administration that sucks money away from the academic side of the university?
Ah yes, suddenly everyone cares about where money is going when discussing something they dislike.
The thing about diversity and inclusion is that there are a lot of systemic barriers that people don’t see until they go looking for them. People who live with disadvantages learn to adapt to them and frequently don’t vocalize them to avoid being a burden. Contrary to conservative narrative, these offices do more than promote affirmative action. These offices examine historical architecture to make them more accessible to the handicapped, proactively identify/resolve problems for university brands, provide funds and support to clubs, and help with employment opportunities for students.
Will the closure of these offices immediately create problems for campuses? Probably not. Will there be other issues that pop up that these departments exist to prevent? Almost certainly
It’s absolutely bonkers to me that people don’t believe there is intrinsic value to mechanical diversity. When I taught student engineering teams, the effects could not have been more obvious. Homogenous groups of “friends” would produce the most lazy, derivative and uncreative work, while it was always that last team of stragglers who had never spoken to each other who would consistently produce actual groundbreaking projects. Most of the time these were middle of the road students in terms of their grades as well.
Being forced outside of a comfort zone literally activates different parts of your brain. It forces you to approach problem solving and teamwork from first principles instead of conditioned and subconscious hierarchy. Seeing this first hand has probably been one of the most formative experiences for me, and I will continue to preach this gospel wherever I go. Just add it to the long list of reasons Texas can suck my tits.
This is literally how the United States started competing so well in STEM. Literally the only good aspect of the assimilation that came about during the industrial revolution.
https://edsitement.neh.gov/media-resources/backstory-melting-pot-americans-assimilation
Is there something wrong with your tits?
Ah yes, any disagreement must come from the “other team” and hatred or ignorance. How insightful…
As a minority who should have seen benefit from such an office, and who is not conservative by any means, all I saw from these diversity offices in college was posters for social events and regular emails from a long string of parasitic Chief Diversity Officers, while our labs and classrooms were looking increasingly dilapidated.
Do you have any evidence to back up the claims that these offices actually do anything toward achieving the stated goals? Surely they’ve been around long enough to have measurable outcomes.
I’m going to run around making claims and when people disagree I’ll make them have evidence!
If you claim these offices are worthless and that this is a good policy then prove it. It’s not the defense’s job in an argument to prove their point. Anything asserted without evidence can be equally dismissed without evidence.
Anyway here’s an academic study stating that exposure to diversity improves cultural awareness and political involvement: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02680930210127577
Here’s a statement from an inter-collegiate group on these programs:
“Data shows, DEI efforts help create an academic community that generates a higher enrollment rate, matriculation rate, and eventual success rate. DEI is for students with disabilities, veterans with PTSD, minority students, and students who are New Americans who may need extra help due to language or cultural barriers. DEI helps more students achieve the American Dream of success via a college education.” Source
Knowing that something failed you and stating it does not call for being preached to by someone who the system obviously worked for. This is just the flip side of the “I know better than you” coin.
This type of educated bullying is also not the answer, or response that gains results.
People have opinions and experiences with out having to back them up with studies and papers . Your response is maddening in the way that it only serves a cooling effect on actual sharing of experience and input… which cools all that lovely diverse , straggler input.
You sound like you’re hiding feelings behind papers and studies.
What is so hard about using what you learned without quoting all you know?
Hey quick question, what the fuck are you talking about?
The other guy started this.
do these offices actually achieve anything?
I responded with a list of things that they do
do you have any evidence to back up these claims
I responded with why I didn’t need evidence to make my point, then provided it anyway.
Maybe I could be perceived as snarky and mean, but I suspect the commenter suggesting the removal of diversity, equity, and inclusion offices in places where we shape the future of our society might not be sincerely posing the question.
What is so hard about using what you learned without quoting all you know?
Literally the 2nd highest upvoted comment on this post and the first response to the commenter is me doing just that
How do you know that you saw no benefit?
When the “other team” is the one making it illegal…
Probably not, honestly, but I truly can’t think of a justification for making them illegal. How is outlawing diversity training and knowledge useful to anyone?
DEI exercises in other kids of businesses often seem like performative BS, if we’re being honest – IMHO, this is a really legitimate and simple question. Especially considering the impact bloated admin “costs” (salaries, etc) have on students & society (e.g. student loan debt).
Not reading all the way down, but just wanted to say I think it sucks that you got downvoted for this comment. You’ve got one less from me, anyways.
But also yeah, they do try and do things that really make a difference. Among other things, they make cross-campus connections to develop initiatives aimed at supporting students from under- represented groups – not just race or ethnicity, but also things like low-income, first generation in your family to attend, etc.
Things like this can strongly correlate with more distractions, difficulties, and obstacles in students’ lives, compared to observations of students from so-called “privileged” backgrounds. Not providing anything that those students from other backgrounds don’t have access to – quite the opposite actually.
I work at a large public university. The sad answer is every admin department is incredibly inefficient and DEI is no different. Six people who sit in an office 98% of the time doing things that should be done by a python script, 1% emailing the entire uni mandatory quizzes like “a student in your class called another student the N word, was that bad?” And the final 1% of the time doing things that actually matter.
Six people who sit in an office 98% of the time doing things that should be done by a python script
That problem exists in nearly every office environment.
That and I feel that forced diversity isn’t diversity at all.
Just like forcing children to eat vegetables isn’t really eating vegetables at all.
It definitely is for those the system works against.
That’s not a race/disability problem. It is a wealth problem.
Crazy how tuition is so expensive and they waste it on shit like this.
Glad I dropped out before wasting too much money.
Yeah… you “dropped out”… Sure buddy, sure… 👍
Yep. One of the greatest decisions I ever made.
Always funny seeing my friends complain about student debt and people getting their jobs without degrees.
Sorry you got suckered into wasting money at a time when knowledge is more accessible than ever.
I dropped out too. It was in no way one of the greatest decisions I ever made. It lead to a series of shitty, dead-end jobs and I’m only lucky my wife has two masters degrees and can always support us. But I’m ashamed that she has to bear a much larger chunk of our expenses than I ever had to.
I pity the life of the guy who’s bragging about dropping out of college. If that’s one of your greatest decisions, life must absolutely suck but you likely don’t even grasp why or how it would have been improved by university training.
I guess this is what they mean when they say ignorance is bliss.
I’m sorry you can’t accept that people have done better than you without going to college.
Lol seems like you’re doing really well for yourself…
Yep. Better than most of the people around me.
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“Insecure” is an awfully big word for a college dropout who couldn’t afford a degree.
