(LifeSiteNews) – The University of Alabama is shuttering its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) offices on three campuses after passage of a state law earlier this year banning the use of taxpayer dollars for such purposes.
In March, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed SB 129, which also prohibits the teaching of “divisive concepts” on topics including race and religion, prohibits educators from assigning “fault, blame, or bias” to persons alive today for “actions committed in the past,” and limits school restrooms to actual members of a designated sex.
On Monday, the university announced the closure of the DEI offices in its Birmingham (UAB), Huntsville (UAH), and Tuscaloosa (UA) campuses, the Washington Stand reported. Replacing them will be a new Division of Opportunities, Connections & Success at the University of Alabama; an Office of Access, Connections, & Engagement at UAH; and an Office of Access & Engagement at UAB.
While questions remain as to just how different the new offices will truly be, school officials are framing them as focusing on “promot(ing) success for everyone in the UA community, including those who may face educational access and achievement challenges.”
“We recognize that some students, faculty and staff face more barriers and a greater need for additional support than others due to their circumstances,” said UAB vice president for access and engagement Paulette Dilworth, who previously led the Birmingham DEI office. “From first-generation college students to students from rural or urban areas or underperforming high schools, to students and employees who are veterans or active-duty military, these are just a few examples of members of the UAB community — now and in the future — who may need additional support to succeed.”
More than 30 states have introduced legislation eliminating DEI programs from education, as part of a broader push against so-called “woke ideology” spearheaded by Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Conservatives have long argued that DEI and other forms of identity politics stoke rather than cure division, and focus education toward left-wing political indoctrination at the expense of traditional learning.
In May, insiders from the University of California-Los Angeles’ (UCLA’s) prestigious David Geffen School of Medicine warned that the school’s diversity fixation had led to a crisis in which more than half of students in various cohorts admitted since 2020 fail standardized tests for basic medical knowledge of subjects ranging from emergency medicine and family medicine to internal medicine and pediatrics.