Mississippi universities are tamping down on programs explicitly designed to create more welcoming environments and to boost participation among diverse student populations as Republican-led attacks mount against diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
University of Mississippi Chancellor Glenn Boyce announced on Aug. 16 that the Oxford, Miss., institution was closing its Division of Diversity and Community Engagement to replace it with a new Division of Access, Opportunity and Community Engagement.
“We are proud of our access mission that gives all qualified Mississippi students the opportunity to earn a college degree,” Boyce said in the statement. “This proposed division will help students navigate the college experience and keep pace with their peers to persist and graduate. By focusing resources to help all students be successful, this will make us a better university.”
DEI programs are supposed to help foster inclusion among students on campus, including not just students of color, but other underrepresented populations like LGBTQ+ students and students with disabilities.
Republican Mississippi State Auditor Shad White, who has long criticized state spending on DEI programs, expressed his thoughts on UM’s reorganization in an August 17 tweet.
“After years of me pointing out the waste and absurd spending at the University of Mississippi’s DEI office—from forums on the evils of ‘whiteness’ to their grants for equity-based preschool yoga (weird)—they announced yesterday they will voluntarily shut down. Good,” White said in the tweet. “But my concern is that Mississippi universities are not really closing their DEI offices and are instead just changing the name.”
DEI Came Under Fire After 2020 Protests
Efforts to promote diversity and combat racism have come under siege in the years since the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd, along with the academic study of critical-race theory. During the Black Lives Matter Movement, institutions of Higher Learning and many institutions in corporate America reaffirmed their commitments to DEI programs to help rectify systemic inequities in higher education. DEI programs, which are rooted in the anti-discrimination efforts that began during the Civil Rights Movement, were not without criticism even before the current wave of Republican attacks, though. Anti-racist activists have often accused corporate America and higher education of using DEI as window dressing to mask failures at creating truly diverse, welcoming environments.
But starting in early 2023, Republican politicians across the country began a campaign to eliminate DEI programs in colleges and universities, saying the efforts misuse public funding, incite division and violate free speech. That year, the Manhattan and Goldwater Institutes, which are both conservative think tanks, drafted model legislation aimed at dismantling DEI efforts at public universities, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported in a June 12 video explaining the attacks on DEI. The Chronicle’s DEI Legislation Tracker recorded at least 39 anti-DEI bills that lawmakers in 19 states introduced in the first six months of the year.
At the University of Mississippi, the proposed Division of Access, Opportunity and Community Engagement will comprise three areas: access and community engagement, access and opportunity, and access and compliance, a university press release said. It will combine several university departments, including Equal Opportunity and Regulatory Compliance, Student Disability Services and Digital Accessibility.
Shawnboda Mead, who currently serves as the vice chancellor for diversity and community engagement, will be vice-chancellor of the new division pending the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees’ approval.
“The mission for our division will enable us to better address the unique needs of our community and ensure that every individual has the support they need to thrive,” Mead said in the release. “This will enhance pathways for success, opportunity and achievement.”
UM said the restructuring is necessary in part due to a steady decline among high-school students enrolling in institutions of higher learning. The division will focus on fostering a sense of community and ensuring opportunities for all students.
Other State Universities Also Making Changes
The University of Mississippi is not the only university in the state to curb its use of the word “diversity.” The University of Southern Mississippi restructured its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to become the Office of Community and Belonging on July 1.
“The Office of Community Engagement and Belonging will be the flagship office to be inclusive and to work with all that come to this great place for educational services and to ensure that all of our efforts are ones of equality, whereby we open the doors and we expand the table to make absolutely sure that no one is not fed,” Senior Associate Provost for Community and Belonging Success Dr. Eddie Holloway told the Mississippi Free Press on Aug 27.
The new office includes both the Academic and Student Affairs offices. University officials say in the strategic planning process that the opportunity arose to streamline the two offices and to improve operational efficiency. The university did not reduce programs, scholarships or jobs in the restructuring process.
“I am deeply optimistic about this recent shift in structure, which I believe is a strategic move toward synergy and greater positive impact,” Holloway said in a university release. “The Southern Miss family is comprised of many first-generation students and graduates, and that is something we are very proud of. Ensuring these, and all students at Southern Miss, have opportunities to learn, lead and excel, remains a key priority for our institution.”
USM also updated its values, vision and mission statements. The university removed the word “diverse” from its mission statement and “inclusiveness” from its vision statement.
Holloway said the changes had nothing to do with rising political pressure or the increase of anti-DEI legislation across the nation.
“I think it was an effort to bridge together the entities of the campus to tie into the academic mission and to link the social development of our students so and to create a oneness,” Holloway said.
Limiting Affirmative Action and Curbing DEI
Mississippi State University announced changes to its Division of Access, Opportunity and Success in November 2023. The department reworked its organizational structure to include “key departments like the Holmes Cultural Diversity Center, Office of Inclusive Excellence, Office of Access and Success, and the Office of Pre-College and Opportunity Programs”—each designed to provide attainable outcomes for students throughout college.
Ra’Sheda Boddie-Forbes serves as vice president for the department, which was previously known as the Division for Access, Diversity and Inclusion when the university appointed her in 2020. She was formally MSU’s assistant vice president for multicultural affairs.
“Students at MSU come from every state in the U.S. and nearly 90 other countries,” Boddie-Forbes said in a Nov. 21, 2023, press release. “They come from diverse backgrounds and the tools they need to have a successful and fulfilling college experience differ. This is why we are focused on having a number of programs and initiatives that meet students where they are—no matter if they are first-generation or international, or if they are coming from foster care or any other background. When they arrive at MSU, we want them to know they are part of the Bulldog family, and this is the place where they will be equipped for their future.”
During a January faculty Senate presentation, Boddie-Forbes addressed questions about the new organizational chart’s elimination of any reference to race, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual identity. She told those at the meeting that the Holmes Culture Diversity Center within the division houses race-based and LGBTQ+ organizations. She also noted that each of the university’s colleges now has a representative that makes up the Inclusive Excellence Leadership Council. That council was previously named the Diversity Council.
DEI includes the policies and procedures designed to ensure that every person at an institution has an equal opportunity for success. In higher education, this affects everything from hiring to campus culture. Many colleges and universities use a variety of DEI initiatives across campus in student housing, dining, health care, academic advising and course offerings.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision to end race-conscious admissions through affirmative action, many states have also taken action to further curb DEI efforts on university campuses as well. Colleges are making changes in response. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported in April that at least 116 colleges and universities had eliminated or renamed DEI offices, jobs and hiring practices since January 2023. Anti-DEI laws exist in at least 10 states. Some universities in states like Arkansas, Georgia and Louisiana have changed their DEI offices or policies even though those states have passed no anti-DEI legislation.
In Alabama, at least six universities have closed or restructured their Offices of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion since Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law banning DEI offices, diversity programs and identity-based preferences. The Associated Press reported last week that the University of Alabama had stripped its Black Student Union of its designated place on campus and shuttered an LGBTQ+ resource center called Safe Zone in anticipation of the anti-DEI law, which takes effect on Oct. 1. At least 12 Florida colleges have also eliminated DEI offices, made policy changes, stopped DEI funding or eliminated staff. Florida’s law banning DEI went into effect on July 1, 2023.
State Auditor Leads Charge Against DEI Initiatives
Despite other Republican-led states doing so in recent years, Mississippi has not enacted an anti-DEI law. Mississippi House Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, introduced an anti-DEI bill in January, but it died in committee; so did a Senate anti-DEI bill that Mississippi Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, introduced.
Mississippi State Auditor Shad White, whose job entails examining how state and local governments use public funds, claimed at the Neshoba County Fair in July that DEI programs create division.
“We’ve got DEI offices telling students that the biggest evil in the world is ‘whiteness’—whatever that is,” White, who previously pushed for a ban on anti-racist library books, told a mostly white crowd on July 31. “I mean, what is that? That makes no sense at all, and we’re paying for it every single day.”
Last summer, White published a report for a report his office conducted showing the amount of money Mississippi universities spent on DEI. The press announcement said that between July 2019 and June 2023, Mississippi universities reported spending $23.4 million on DEI initiatives. The report said that $11 million of state taxpayer funds went to DEI programs. The report is no longer available online, however.
“I have real concerns about what DEI staff may be teaching or doing at our taxpayer-funded universities,” White said in a June 8, 2023 press release. “For example, during the Trump Administration, President Trump shut down federal government DEI programs because some taught that ‘virtually all White people contribute to racism.’ This kind of language tears us apart, not brings us together.”
White also said that state universities reported spending 70% of DEI funds on employees.
“One unfortunate statistic was the amount of money spent on DEI salaries and the lack of money spent on scholarships,” White said. “If the real goal of DEI was to increase diversity at the universities, one would think more money would be going to scholarships for poor students instead of adults’ paychecks.”
However, during this year’s legislative session, Rep. Donnie Scoggin, R-Ellisville, said that the report’s claim that universities spent over $23 million on DEI initiatives was “extremely misleading.”
“We’ve looked at that report. A lot of that is going to be private money that has been given to the individual colleges and the state-supported number is going to be much, much smaller than that,” Scoggin said on the House floor on May 3 in response to a question from Rep. Dan Eubanks, R-DeSoto, about White’s DEI report.
In his Aug. 17 tweet, White said his office will continue to monitor DEI efforts and changes across the state.
“As auditor, I cannot stop that spending. I can only shine a light on it. We need leaders at the top of our state government who will shut off the money to this stuff,” he wrote. “Spend the money on stuff that helps the economy, like roads, cops, and tax cuts.”
Neither Mississippi State University nor the University of Mississippi returned requests for comment by press time.