Dive Brief:
- In Texas, 65% of interviewed LGBTQ+ students reported being negatively affected by the state's 2023 ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public colleges, according to a campus climate report released late last month.
- More than half, 52%, said they had considered leaving their colleges following the ban, and 78% weighed leaving the state altogether.
- The report, conducted last year by Equality Texas, offers a look at how one of the first statewide bans against DEI at public colleges affected one group of vulnerable college students.
Dive Insight:
In June 2023, Texas became one of the first states to prohibit DEI programs and jobs at public colleges, outlawing these initiatives just one month after Florida enacted a similar measure.
Texas' DEI ban, also known as SB 17, was notable at the time for its breadth, and critics decried it as an overreach of the state legislature. Since then, Texas has served as a blueprint for other states that have pursued or enacted DEI bans at public colleges.
Researchers from Equality Texas interviewed 44 students and employees at both public and private Texas colleges. Though the state's ban does not ban DEI efforts at private institutions, all interviewed students at those colleges said they had considered leaving due to a hostile climate toward LGBTQ+ people.
"Some have already begun submitting transfer applications to schools outside of Texas, while others are considering leaving Texas after graduating," the new report said.
Among interviewed LGBTQ+ faculty, 76% reported being negatively affected. But far fewer considered leaving their institutions or the state, 14% and 24%, respectively.
Faculty at public institutions also said that their colleges are still trying to understand what the law bans and permits. That confusion stokes fear about job security, they said.
Intimidation from Texas lawmakers has "fostered dangerous over-compliance that threatens the freedom of professors and the academic integrity of some of our most cherished institutions," Elsie Kindall, government affairs associate at Equality Texas and lead researcher on the report, said in a statement.
Texas lawmakers have doubled down on the enforcement, emphasizing colleges cannot circumvent the law by keeping DEI services under a different name. After the ban took effect in January 2024, the state representative who sponsored the legislation ordered leaders from seven Texas university systems to detail their compliance.
Bans like Texas' "stretch the definition of DEI far beyond programs that bear the name to include multicultural centers, like LGBTQIA+ centers, that existed long before the conversations around DEI became mainstream in 2020," the report said. Such centers often offered lending libraries, professional clothing for job interviews and support for students seeking gender-affirming care through campus health centers.
Following the ban's passage, Texas A&M University closed its LGBTQ+ Pride Center along with its diversity office, as did the University of Houston.
The University of Texas Austin initially replaced its decades-old Gender and Sexuality Center with a Women's Community Center. But UT-Austin shuttered the new women's center a few months later with little explanation.
Interviewed students said they’ve taken on responsibilities — such as planning events — that "would have previously been hosted, at least in part, by their university.” Texas' DEI ban prohibits college employees from leading any diversity programming.
"Student organization work now feels like a job rather than an extracurricular, and we are not getting properly compensated for our work," one public university student told researchers.
In addition to opposing future legislation similar to Texas’ DEI ban, the report encouraged public college administrators to support LGBTQ+ student organizations to the best of their abilities. Private colleges should also invest directly in LGBTQ+ student centers, it said.
For example, Southern Methodist University, a private religious institution in Dallas, continues to operate its Women and LGBT Center under its student affairs office — an option no longer available to public colleges.
