A small clutch of faculty and students huddled around a table on Murray State University’s campus decked out with literature promoting diversity, equity and inclusion practices on Kentucky’s public university campuses.
As people stream by on their way to class, organizers from United Campus Workers of Kentucky and the newly formed Kentuckians for Higher Education coalition have quick conversations with them about DEI programs and initiatives — and how they’re on the chopping block in the Commonwealth.
Brian Bourke — a Murray State professor and program coordinator for the school’s Higher Education and Student Affairs master’s program — pointed to the failed efforts to kill DEI in the state during last year’s Kentucky legislative session, saying attempts to curtail those programs and initiatives are a threat to academic freedom.
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“Really what we’ve come to know as open American higher education, at least as it’s experienced in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is entirely at stake,” Bourke said. “If legislators can step in and really dictate what’s taught and how it’s taught, that’s very dangerous.”
MSU associate professor of art history Antje Gamble is a part of her campus UCW chapter and a member of Kentuckians for Higher Education. She said the coalition — which includes groups like the League of Women Voters of Kentucky, the Fairness Campaign, the ACLU of Kentucky and the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy, among others — sprang out of the campus union group.
“Our state needs more funding for public education because we have lots of low-income, first-generation students,” she said. “We think all Kentuckians should have access to higher education if they want it.”
Gamble, whose studies include the cultural roots of Italian fascism, said the national rhetoric around the subject of DEI — such as the executive orders from President Donald Trump this week calling for an end to federal DEI programs and one signed Tuesday aimed at ending military DEI programs — is making her nervous.
“I have some more outlandish fears because of my knowledge of fascism. But with what’s happening at the national level, it’s already emboldening [to some],” she said. “I think [university leadership] could be doing a lot more to protect our students, staff and faculty against impending attacks, both financial and other ones, because [when] we look at historical precedents, like actual violence will come out of this emboldenment.”
She hopes campus leaders at her university and others can publicly support DEI programs, something that’s not been in vogue recently in the Commonwealth. The University of Kentucky, the largest public university in the state, closed its DEI office last year, and Northern Kentucky University disbanded its Office of Inclusive Excellence shortly afterward.
In legislative reports last year, officials with Western Kentucky University, as well as Eastern Kentucky University and MSU said their institutional diversity or equity offices are largely aimed at federal and state requirements like Title IX and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Organizers also gathered on the campuses of the University of Louisville, EKU in Richmond and Morehead State University.
At the U of L, faculty, support staff and students clustered around a table at the humanities quad, handing out fliers with bullet points on the importance and history of DEI and QR codes directing students and campus workers to databases to share their personal experiences with DEI.
Part of that effort is Katie Kleinkopf, assistant professor of Comparative Humanities. She said one of the goals aside from educating people about DEI is the call for a statement from the administration detailing ways they are going to protect faculty, staff, and workers from being fired and programs under the DEI flag from closure in light of more DEI-related bills expected during the upcoming legislative session.
Last year, a few jobs at U of L with a DEI title were renamed and reclassified, she said.
“Some of the only feedback that we’ve gotten is that people won’t lose their jobs, but that guarantee doesn’t mean that people won’t be put in different jobs that they aren’t as passionate about, that they aren’t getting paid as much money to do,” she said.
Bradley Price moved from Lexington to study at U of L’s Pan-African Studies department. She’s concerned about the blowback to departments like hers that may lose accreditation.
“I want to protect my ability to learn about my history, especially as a Black American,” she said. “I feel like I’m owed a relevant education regarding the history of Black women, the history of Black people in the state, and the history of the Pan-African Studies department here in U of L.”
EKU – unlike many other schools – has never had a dedicated DEI office. But some on campus have concerns that legislation curtailing those practices would affect resources, including programs and initiatives for first-generation students, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other groups.
That includes EKU grad student and organizer Alice Harkins. She said she’s benefitted from those resources as a disabled veteran.
“It encompasses so much more than race, sex and gender,” she said. “You know, are you a veteran? Are you a non-traditional student? Are you a caregiver, whether that’s to a child or maybe an elderly parent? Are you in a lower socioeconomic status? Do you live in a rural area?”
Fellow student Jillian Gabhart suffers from chronic illness. They worry they’ll be overlooked for jobs without those resources.
“I want to be an elementary school teacher, I will technically be an employee of the state government,” they said. “If they don’t have these programs for diversity, equity and inclusion, I, as a disabled person, might not be able to get hired, or could be told that I can’t work in schools because of my disability.”
Angel Davis is the president of EKU’s African Students Association. She said she’s been busy talking to her peers and classmates about the divisive topic.
“A lot of people don’t really know about it, and so it’s important to put yourself out there and get in that uncomfortable situation to talk to people, get their opinions and how we can come together as a student body and make a difference,” she said.
Student organizers at the event also plan to visit Frankfort during this year’s state legislative session to discuss those concerns at the state Capitol.
UCW leadership said they expect to scale up educational efforts across the state as the legislative session ramps up, with the Republican supermajority expected to again float anti-DEI bills.
Kentucky Senate Majority Leader Max Wise told news outlets late last year that he expects the topic to be a major talking point moving forward.
“I think a lot of times when we have legislation from one session and it doesn’t pass and it goes into the next year, I think that’s where things typically get worked out in the interim,” Wise told the Associated Press. “I would be very surprised, if we had another DEI bill, that it did not pass the second time.”
This story is republished with permission from WKMS. Read the original.
