A December 13 executive order by Oklahoma’s governor outlaws the use of public funds or property for university departments that “grant preferential treatment based on one person’s particular race, color, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.” It appears to also abolish race-based admissions programs, which already were curbed by a 2023 Supreme Court decision that largely prohibited the use of race in college admissions to promote “diversity.”
The executive order also requires public colleges and universities “to initiate a review of DEI positions, departments, activities, procedures, and programs to eliminate and dismiss non-critical personnel.”
The order effectively forces universities to eliminate their offices of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, University of Oklahoma President Joseph Harroz said in a statement lamenting the order.
The three-page executive order also forbids mandatory diversity statements, which are often used to weed out moderate or conservative applicants, as well as any mandatory DEI trainings. The order also states no one must “mandate any person to disclose their pronouns.”
The executive order also applies to state agencies.
“We’re taking politics out of education and focusing on preparing students for the workforce,” Stitt stated in the news release.
The order came after Oklahoma’s public universities spent a whopping $83.4 million on DEI initiatives since 2013, which critics called wasteful.
As The College Fix reported a month ago, DEI spending included tens of thousands of dollars spent on things like drag-queen performances, trans and antiracist trainings, and a “Black Jesus” event.
In the last academic year alone, Oklahoma public colleges spent $10 million on DEI events and payroll expenses — up from $7.1 million in 2013-14. Public colleges have until next May 2024 to carry out the order, which states that it does not ban “civil discourse and debate or speech that is protected by the First Amendment.”
The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a conservative think tank that has highlighted rising DEI spending, praised Stitt’s order. Following it, state legislator Rob Standridge introduced four bills “to eliminate DEI influence from Oklahoma colleges.”
“Senate Bills 1303, 1304, 1305, and 1306 prohibit the establishment of a DEI office or hiring or assigning of employees to carry out DEI practices, among other safeguards. It also states that if the State Auditor and Inspector determines an institution has spent funds in violation of the legislation, the college could become ineligible to receive funding allocation increases from the State Regents in the next fiscal year,” notes the OCPA.
In his statement Wednesday, the University of Oklahoma president declared that the order “evokes deep concern and uncertainty about the future, and in many ways feels like a step backward.”
Oklahoma is not alone and taking a second look at CEI spending. Republican legislators in every Republican-controlled state have sponsored bills to curb DEI in the last couple years, and Florida and Texas have enacted legislation to curb DEI in state colleges and universities.
A number of Boards of Trustees and Boards of Education have also prohibited the solicitation of diversity statements in hiring, and compulsory DEI trainings, such as in Iowa, Idaho, North Carolina and Arizona.
