The University of Missouri has announced it is closing its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office — a decision made at a campus that, nearly a decade ago, saw students pioneer how racial activists can protest on campuses to force sweeping policy changes in the modern era.
Shuttering the DEI office is being blamed on pressure from Republican lawmakers and described as a preemptive decision to ward off any new laws, University of Missouri System President Mun Choi told reporters at a news conference. Many lawmakers in red states have passed legislation over the last two years curbing DEI programs at public institutions.
“We’re seeing the actions that have been taken in other states,” said Choi, also chancellor at Mizzou, according to the Kansas City Star. “There were divisions that were eliminated, the DEI divisions, and it resulted in larger staff layoffs.”
“And in our case, we wanted to be proactive because those staff members serve an important role in ensuring the success of our students.”
Choi said administrators are shifting toward a race-neutral approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and “not excluding any group in the name of inclusion,” reported the Chronicle of Higher Education, which also attended the late-Friday news conference.
He told reporters employees in the DEI office will be reassigned, adding: “The bottom line is that the services that were available for students will still be available, but they’ll be available within the larger divisions that these units will now be a part of.”
However, the vice chancellor for DEI will leave the university on Aug. 15 and the school will no longer have that role, the Chronicle reported.
In 2023, the University of Missouri System also stopped requiring applicants to pledge allegiance to DEI by banning mandatory diversity statements.
In the fall of 2015, Mizzou was home to massive student protests over claims of systemic racism.
The protesters, under the name Concerned Student 1950, made demands for more black faculty, for white leaders to resign, and other concessions. They enacted a hunger strike and staged sit-ins, which football players joined. Social media helped powerful images spread like wildfire.
The protest made national headlines — and led to the resignation of University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe and Mizzou’s Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin at the time. The University of Missouri also implemented mandatory DEI training for all employees and students.
In the years that followed, black students activists took pages from Concerned Student 1950’s playbook, developing their own lists of demands and sit-in styled protests at campuses across the nation.
But the infamous Mizzou protest also led to plummeting enrollment, shuttering dorms and massive layoffs for the university, which took a black eye over the bad press.
MORE: Parents of black hunger striker protesting ‘white privilege’ own lakeside home worth $1.1 million
IMAGE: Field of Vision Concerned Student 1950 YouTube screenshot
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