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What Does it Mean? Another University DEI Office Shuts Down
596 sats \ 51 comments \ @TNStacker 24 Jul news
In Texas, Florida, Alabama, and across the U.S. University DEI offices are being shut down. But are they? Notice in most announcements there is a reassignment of staff and a renaming of the department of office. Here's one from today's news:
UAH officially removes DEI offices from campus
https://www.waff.com/2024/07/24/uah-officially-removes-dei-offices-campus/
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - The University of Alabama at Huntsville announced the removal of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices from its campus.
The Alabama Act 2024-34 bans DEI and will be in full effect at all public schools in Alabama beginning in October.
A spokesperson from UAH says that a new office is opening called The Office of Access, Connections and Engagement.
Why is this? Is it because universities are woke? Is it because diversity and inclusion are actually important in the marketplace? Does it matter to you if you are on one side or the other?
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53 sats \ 2 replies \ @freetx 24 Jul
Conceptually its a good idea to close DEI offices in order to help construct a more color-blind society + encourage meritocracy, however I doubt this is the end of it.
"Closing the DEI office" is probably going to be just for show, they can still continue to actively seek hires that are of "diverse backgrounds" as long as they don't explicitly mention race, then it will probably be legal.
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14 sats \ 1 reply \ @TNStacker OP 24 Jul
Probably going to be?
Already is!
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
Maybe they are closing the office and renaming it something else? Another interpretation of it?
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56 sats \ 21 replies \ @cristaiji 24 Jul
The whole DEI thing is so strange. To me it’s a subversion of the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s. Or even an inversion. And Woke seems more like a cult or psy op.
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118 sats \ 2 replies \ @TNStacker OP 24 Jul
To me woke was, and will always be, a warning from one Black to another.
What you call woke, is a white over-reaction to 2020. People forget, or don't recognize that Blacks are only about 14 percent of the population. What they want only carried weight when others join. But as in most things popular in America, when the popular majority takes hold of something from Black people, it gets appropriated and morphed.
None of this is strange at all. It is the U.S. repeating historic patterns, but in an information age.
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100 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 24 Jul
Dead right. I will add that around 2020 many white progressives started adopting the term and using it to describe themselves. Then white conservatives started using it as term of derision to describe people that hold many progressive positions, mostly cultural stuff.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
Interesting. I am trying to process what you are saying, give me a second.
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0 sats \ 16 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
When I was in school, in the 2000, were there any DEI offices? I dont seem to recall...
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20 sats \ 15 replies \ @TNStacker OP 25 Jul
Depends on where you went to school. Also, not much reason for non-monorities to to be aware. If your school didn't have an office, the Title IX and VII compliance officers handled this back then. Although some schools led by creating diversity roles in admissions, recruiting etc. I know a guy who held positions at Stanford and Cal and I know Ivy schools had positions in the early 2000s. It spread across the country slowly, as progressive things do, until the explosion after 2020 (George Floyd). Now backlash is swinging the pendulum, at least in name, back in the other direction.
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0 sats \ 14 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
I see. I seem to remember an office for minorities, but I cant remember what it was called. It wasnt the DEI. Swinging the pendulum, or settling it down?
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20 sats \ 13 replies \ @TNStacker OP 25 Jul
The DEI acronym, and the terms evolved over time. At first just Minority or even Black if you go way back. The Diversity. But that was seen as just black and like affirmative action, so equity was added, as was inclusion later. At the University of Tennessee, due to politics they dropped the term equity and changed it to engagement (Look for this term in many of the name changes, also access).
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21 sats \ 12 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
Interesting. I think we had an office of foreign affairs at my school. They covered the DEI stuff, I believe.
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20 sats \ 11 replies \ @TNStacker OP 25 Jul
They handle issues for international students. Similar work, but obviously more specialized
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21 sats \ 10 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
You might be right. Im trying to think if there was one for minorities? Fafsa?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Bell_curve 24 Jul
It’s a different term for affirmative action which was unpopular. Affirmative action to diversity to DEI after George Floyd
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100 sats \ 12 replies \ @Undisciplined 24 Jul
I think in part it's because they don't like firing fellow administrators and also partly that those administrators all believe in the DEI/ACE stuff (not saying they shouldn't).
I'm not sure how much it reflects market pressures and I don't particularly care if these departments exist. The truth is that one way or another universities are going to have a strategy for dealing with this set of issues. Whether that's in a stand alone office or it's mixed in with the duties of another office doesn't really concern me.
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21 sats \ 11 replies \ @TNStacker OP 24 Jul
Perceptive!
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21 sats \ 10 replies \ @Undisciplined 24 Jul
I have worked in and around academia for a couple of decades now, including one case of a university going through some major cuts and reorganization.
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21 sats \ 8 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
Yes, I was thinking something similar. They probably are cutting back because some of these offices are too expensive to manage. They dont bring in a clear profit to the university.
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21 sats \ 7 replies \ @TNStacker OP 25 Jul
They are cutting back because of politics and Republicans outlawing or defunding them. Plain and simple political. culture war stuff Not saying whether they should exist or not, but the reason for the pull backs is well documented. As was the flood of offices opening post-2020.
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21 sats \ 6 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
Politics in a public university....it cant be good. Politics sway back and forth.
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20 sats \ 5 replies \ @TNStacker OP 25 Jul
Exactly. It will swing the other way again. Watch!
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21 sats \ 4 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
Yes, of course. Its just a matter of time. But schools arent doing so well now, so it might take a while.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker OP 24 Jul
Same
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21 sats \ 3 replies \ @Cje95 24 Jul
The HUGE telltale sign for me that we were seeing the end of this was when Microsoft axed the whole team. Microsoft has a POC CEO and has been pretty progressive so them making that move just screamed that the idea was running on empty
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0 sats \ 2 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
Maybe not running on empty, maybe more along the lines of not running profitably?
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20 sats \ 1 reply \ @Cje95 25 Jul
In my eyes DEI was never supposed to turn a profit rather it was supposed to make the public and shareholders happy. Given that it hasn't produced results they could point at and was a cash-burning pit yeah it was dragging down profits and they did not get anything out of it. I mean there has been growing backlash against DEI because they have not produced meaningful results
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
I feel many places have become bloated. I remember there was a major called...womens studies. I dont even know how that major came about, and what it would be good for.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Malachi17 24 Jul
Educated guess: No state funding for woke initiatives is on the horizon.
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21 sats \ 2 replies \ @grayruby 24 Jul
Why did they ever need a DEI office in the first place?
You can have a DEI strategy without paying a bunch of money to useless administrators whose sole job is to create work for themselves.
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50 sats \ 1 reply \ @TNStacker OP 24 Jul
Again, overreaction presenting "solutions" that do nothing and go nowhere, but eases the guilt or gives warm fuzzies to white liberals. Usually without consultation with the aggrieved.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @grayruby 24 Jul
Sounds about right.
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21 sats \ 3 replies \ @0xbitcoiner 24 Jul
👀 this ?
Closing “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) offices around the country is a powerful step in halting the illiberal and divisive harm-centric monoculture that has taken over higher education. However, there remain far too many student-facing administrative offices that seek the same goals. Whether in residential services or student life offices, administrators wield significant power and influence over students, affecting their learning and future trajectories. It’s crucial to address any dangerous or divisive behavior exhibited by these administrators.
[...]
https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2024/04/22/closing-dei-offices-is-not-enough/
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21 sats \ 2 replies \ @TNStacker OP 24 Jul
But they aren't really changing anything except the name. They are making temporary political changes, understanding that politics swings in both directions.
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21 sats \ 1 reply \ @0xbitcoiner 24 Jul
Something similar happened here in Portugal with the SEF (Immigration and Borders Service), which is now called AIMA (Immigration, Migration and Asylum Agency). A few years ago, someone died due to mistreatment by SEF agents. Those involved were convicted, and it was decided to change the name, I guess in an attempt to make people forget about it.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @TNStacker OP 24 Jul
Don't be bamboozled by name change!
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Satosora 25 Jul
Interesting. Why were they added to campuses in the first place? To push an agenda? Or maybe government funding for that department got cut?
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