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Texas university clears DEI offices, fires employees in light of new state law: report
April 02, 2024, 10:08 PM
12131Texas university clears DEI offices, fires employees in light of new state law: report
The push back on the DIE bullshit continues and claimed more casualties.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/...new-state-law-reportThe Texas Senate Committee on Education is expected to hold a hearing in May probing university officials on how they are ensuring compliance with state law banning DEI.
By Joshua Q. Nelson | Fox News
Published April 2, 2024 9:09pm EDT
The University of Texas at Austin fired dozens of employees who worked in their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs to comply with a new state law, according to a report.
University of Texas at Austin President Jay Hartzell announced Tuesday the school’s Division of Campus and Community Engagement is being dissolved and its programs and funding transferred to other divisions.
The announcement comes as the university works to comply with a new Texas law that came into effect Jan. 1, which effectively dissolved DEI institutions at public colleges and universities throughout the state.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that a person with knowledge about the situation said 60 positions that were related to DEI work were eliminated at UT-Austin.
The law mandates that all governing boards of public colleges and universities ensure that their institutions prohibit the establishment and maintenance of a DEI office and the issue of "DEI Statements." In addition, hiring practices and training are no longer able to use DEI statements.
"I recognize that strong feelings have surrounded SB 17 from the beginning and will shape many Longhorns’ perceptions of these measures," Hartzell wrote in reference to the new law. "It is also important that this continues to be a welcoming, supportive community for all."
In the message, Hartzell said student-facing jobs would remain throughout the rest of the semester and that laid-off employees could apply for other positions at the university.
The firings came after state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R., outlined expectations on how universities will comply with the state law. He wrote a letter expressing the serious nature of the bill, saying that the measure "mandates a fundamental shift in the operation of our higher education institutions." He added that universities are expected to facilitate a "merit-based environment."
Furthermore, he explained that the Texas Senate Committee on Education is expected to hold a hearing in May, probing chancellors and "general counselors" of higher education institutions to show how their universities are complying with the law. If universities fail to comply with the state law, they could lose funding, Creighton warned.
Among 5 specific questions on compliance, university spokespeople are expected to explain, "How has your institution ensured that there are no DEI offices or officers on campus, or no individuals or organizations performing the duties of a DEI office or officer?"
Cultural graduations were another casualty of the effect of the law, prompting outrage from some students.
When the university’s Multicultural Engagement Center (MEC) was closed in compliance with the state’s law, Black Graduation, Latinx Graduation, and GraduAsian ceremonies were impacted as a result.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, introduced a bill to freeze federal funding to colleges and universities that force students to sign or make statements on DEI.
The University of Florida fired all its DEI employees in compliance with state law last week.
Q
April 02, 2024, 10:11 PM
parabellumExcellent
April 02, 2024, 10:19 PM
OttoSigLouisiana and Texas can make an amalgamation of their stances and we’ll be cooking with getting rid of all this useless BS.
10 years to retirement! Just waiting! April 02, 2024, 10:35 PM
konata88Awesome. I hope this is replicated in the private sector as well.
"Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it." L.Tolstoy
"A government is just a body of people, usually, notably, ungoverned." Shepherd Book April 02, 2024, 10:41 PM
flesheatingvirusquote:
When the university’s Multicultural Engagement Center (MEC) was closed in compliance with the state’s law, Black Graduation, Latinx Graduation, and GraduAsian ceremonies were impacted as a result.
Are you fucking kidding me? What about the Graduwhite ceremony?
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-- Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past me I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. --
April 02, 2024, 10:49 PM
Edmondquote:
When the university’s Multicultural Engagement Center (MEC) was closed in compliance with the state’s law, Black Graduation, Latinx Graduation, and GraduAsian ceremonies were impacted as a result.
Somehow I doubt that to be true and if so, the impact would be statistically insignificant because those Asian kids are graduating anyway. Asians aren't considered a minority until it's time for votes.
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April 02, 2024, 10:56 PM
sjtillBut wait...there's more!
UT Austin has a new Center for Civic Leadership, and apparently they've appointed a conservative, Justin Dyer, as Dean.
Link
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“Remember, remember the fifth of November!"
April 03, 2024, 08:02 AM
Mr. Peteronimanquote:
The Austin American-Statesman reported that a person with knowledge about the situation said 60 positions that were related to DEI work were eliminated at UT-Austin.
60 fucking positions?
no wonder the 'didn't earn it' people like it so much
the grift is strong with this shit, get paid to trash whity, dream job
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All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed.
For after all, he was only human. He wasn't a dog.”
― Charles M. Schulz
April 03, 2024, 08:17 AM
rduckworSanity returns!!
RMD
TL Davis: “The Second Amendment is special, not because it protects guns, but because its violation signals a government with the intention to oppress its people…”
Remember: After the first one, the rest are free.
April 03, 2024, 08:45 AM
Pipe SmokerA BIG win! This’ll enrage the libs.
“The AAUP and NAACP said they had “heightened concerns” about the layoffs because many of the employees who were fired had been recently reassigned to positions not related to DEI. The groups' letter said they will “continue to accumulate information to address what we believe to be potential attacks on First Amendment Freedoms.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2...tin-firings-dei-ban/
Serious about crackers. April 03, 2024, 09:14 AM
TMatsDEI has been a topic of discussion in Wyoming’s legislature this session. A bill was passed that cuts funding to the University of Wyoming’s Office of DEI. Here is one “however”…
quote:
Wyoming is among the significant minority of states that, in one way or another, has opted to limit the funding and operation of diversity, equity and inclusion programs on college and university campuses.
But while Governor Mark Gordon signed into law legislation that would cut $1.7 million from the University of Wyoming’s budget to eliminate funds for its DEI office, the Republican governor vetoed a provision that would have ended diversity programming at the university, Cowboy State Daily reported. The veto will allow the university to use its own funds for diversity-related programs, though it will require elimination of the separate DEI office.
In a veto message explaining his decision, Gordon said the university and the state would have been putting at risk federal grants that require recipients to show that they are creating opportunities for underrepresented groups. “Without this targeted veto, the Legislature will have inadvertently put millions of dollars of federal grants that regularly flow to the University at risk,” he wrote.
Inside Higher Ed link
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despite them
April 03, 2024, 09:18 AM
PASigquote:
Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:
quote:
When the university’s Multicultural Engagement Center (MEC) was closed in compliance with the state’s law, Black Graduation, Latinx Graduation, and GraduAsian ceremonies were impacted as a result.
Are you fucking kidding me? What about the Graduwhite ceremony?
Don't you find it ironic that the very people that are always squawking about "segregation" and "inclusiveness" are the ones that are actually pushing segregation and making things NON-inclusive? It's amazing to me.
April 03, 2024, 10:10 AM
HRKDeSantis signed no DEI on state funded schools back in May of 2023. Since then UF eliminated it's office of DEI, which was costing taxpayers $5 million a year. Maybe those funds can go to helping students, teacher pay, books, anything but DEI
LinkThe 2023 state bill in question, SB 266, stipulates specifically that schools in and organizations directly supported by the Florida College System cannot use state or federal funds to “promote, support, or maintain any programs or campus activities that … advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or promote or engage in political or social activism,” as defined by state education officials.
Link SB266April 03, 2024, 04:14 PM
slosigExcellent start. Now if only it could be rolled out nationwide.
April 03, 2024, 04:38 PM
ibandaI think JALLEN told a story about playing a band gig on New Year's Eve and using the funds to to pay his tuition for the entire spring semester. College has gotten way too expensive and the administrations are bloated. This is a fine example of 60 Admins that were unnecessary on campus.
I have a few SIGs.
April 03, 2024, 05:14 PM
Gustoferquote:
Originally posted by ibanda:
College has gotten way too expensive and the administrations are bloated.
My freshman year at Montana State was $825/year (3 quarters). This year it is $8082/year (2 semesters).
Adjusted for inflation, that $825 equals $2542 today. Three times more expensive and I would argue it is an inferior education.
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"Great danger lies in the notion that we can reason with evil." Doug Patton.
April 03, 2024, 06:24 PM
divilThis brings joy to my cynical black heart.

April 03, 2024, 07:29 PM
nhtagmemberIf he vetoed the bill to eliminate the office, it’s a political statement. However if he just zeros out the budget line item, it was a financial decision much like cuts elsewhere. People have been cutting music, arts and other findings from schools for decades, but it’s always been financially driven and not a political statement.
The Pentagon is famous for not eliminating a program. They just refuse to fund it. Result is the same.
April 03, 2024, 07:46 PM
slosigquote:
Originally posted by Gustofer:
quote:
Originally posted by ibanda:
College has gotten way too expensive and the administrations are bloated.
My freshman year at Montana State was $825/year (3 quarters). This year it is $8082/year (2 semesters).
Adjusted for inflation, that $825 equals $2542 today. Three times more expensive and I would argue it is an inferior education.
Dang, in state tuition has gone up something like a grand in four years! Thank goodness for the WUE (Western University Exchange) program. ~10k WUE per year sounds a lot better than ~25k out of state.
April 03, 2024, 08:06 PM
12131And then, we have this garbage flourishing in commie states.
UCLA Med School forced first year students to attend 'structural racism' course where screaming pro-Hamas speaker told them to kneel for bizarre woke 'prayer', while pediatrician DEI boss looked onBy NIC WHITE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 19:59 EDT, 3 April 2024 | UPDATED: 20:46 EDT, 3 April 2024
First-year UCLA medical students were forced to sit through a bizarre lecture by a pro-Hamas activist who made them pray to 'mama Earth' while a faculty member sought to identify one student who refused to do so.
Lisa Gray-Garcia gave the two-hour presentation at Geffen Hall, on the university's downtown Los Angeles Campus on March 27, the
Washington Free Beacon reported.
The lecture was a mandatory part of the Structural Racism and Health Equity class that all future doctors must take, administered by pediatrician Lindsay Wells.
Gray-Garcia calls herself a 'poverty skola', keeps her face covered with a keffiyeh except in a few interviews, and called Hamas' October 7 attack 'justified'.
Students were instructed to touch the floor with their fists while she made a 'non-secular' prayer to 'mama Earth' and our 'ancestors', a complaint stated.
'Mama earth was never meant to be bought, sold, pimped, or played,' Gray-Garcia said during the prayer, part of which was recorded by a student.
She claimed private property was a 'crapitalist lie' that killed 'black, brown, and houseless' people who were forced to live on the streets.
Gray-Garcia, who grew up homeless with her single mother from the age of 11, railed against anti-homeless campaigns during another part of the lecture.
'Not only are our bodies considered unclean in public, not only are out lives criminalized for being outside without access to a roof, but politricksters use us for their campaigns,' she said.
'$30 million was spent on removal of our houseless bodies... for turning human being into trash.
She asked the students to think of how many homes could be built with that money 'even in these inflated, ridiculous prices of the commodified Mama Earth'.
Gray-Garcia's lecture was titled 'Housing (In)justice in LA: Addressing Unhousing and Practicing Solidarity' but also veered into the crisis in Gaza.
At one point she led students in chanting 'Free, Free Palestine', as UCLA faculty including Dr Wells looked on in silence.
During a second call for students to kneel on the floor, one refused to do so. An unidentified UCLA faculty member is said to have enquired as to the student's name, sparking fears they could face repercussions for refusing to comply with Gray-Garcia's bizarre diktat.
It is unclear how much Gray-Garcia was paid for the lecutre. UCLA charges medical students fees of around $44,000-a-year, with additional costs taking the total needed to train there to $84,000-a-year.
Gray-Garcia slammed Israel just hours after Hamas killed 1,200 people on October 7 expressed support for Palestine, but none for the murdered Israelis.
'As we hold our relatives in Occupied Palestine &all of MamaEarth in prayer & love we need to make the connections,' she wrote on Twitter.
'For us Houseless, indigenous, swept/evicted people -we r not separate from this struggle - we suffer from the same settler colonial terror.'
Then on November 1 she wrote: 'When u resist after decades of relentless poLicing, killing& terrorizing that's not 'terrorism' that's justice.'
Gray-Garcia has also previously called Israel 'amerikkklan', in reference to the KKK.
Later in the lecture she called modern medicine 'white science' and referred to North America as occupied 'Turtle Island' and said they were in 'what the settlers call LA'.
She frequently calls cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco by their Native American names and calls them 'occupied'.
Towards the end of the lecture, Gray-Garcia told students to stand for a second prayer, which all but a few did.
'Of those gathered, a handful of students who were visibly uncomfortable declined to participate, remaining seated throughout,' UCLA's Jewish Faculty Resilience Group wrote in a complaint
'At this point, a UCLA staff member inquired as to the identity of a medical student who had remained sitting down, potentially singling them out for disciplinary treatment.
'The net effect was that UCLA staff intimidated first-year medical students into participating in a religious service in derogation of their own personal beliefs.'
Q