The University of Kentucky is getting rid of its Office for Institutional Diversity immediately. According to President Eli Capilouto, the university will no longer require diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training for students or faculty.
Though the office will be disbanded, no one will lose their job according to Capilouto. In an email to staff last week, he said other offices will absorb the people and services from the Office of Institutional Diversity, including a new office called the Office for Community Relations.
“We share the value that out of many people, we are one community. We share a promise with Kentucky that all who turn to us should have the same opportunity to live a healthy, long life or cross that stage with a diploma in hand. That is how we honor our shared, common humanity,” said President Capilouto in a release on Tuesday, Aug. 20.
“But we’ve also listened to policymakers and heard many of their questions about whether we appear partisan or political on the issues of our day and, as a result, narrowly interpret things solely through the lens of identity. In so doing, the concern is that we either intentionally or unintentionally limit discourse.”
The action came after state lawmakers debated whether to limit DEI practices at public universities, with Republican lawmakers in the Kentucky House and Senate unable to push a bill through the state’s legislature before the end of April, the end of this year’s legislative session.
Other major institutions and businesses have begun reforming or abolishing their own DEI programs, including Brown-Forman, one of the most prominent bourbon companies in the state. The Jack Daniel’s whiskey parent company will no longer put forward any policies that included linking “executive compensation to progress on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives.”
Brown-Forman’s announcement comes days after anti-DEI activist Robby Starbucks criticized the company for its DEI policies, as he has done with other major companies like Tractor Supply, John Deere and Harley-Davidson, which have all capitulated and closed their own DEI programs.
This article appears in Aug 14-27, 2024.