CONCERNS ARISE OVER ANTI-DEI BILLS AND ITS IMPACT ON CAMPUS DIVERSITY GROUPS

Jason Parsley

The anti-DEI bill that recently passed the House and is making its way through the Florida senate has proponents of inclusion concerned about its impact on campus groups focused on diversity.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has made it a point to target public university’s Diversity, Inclusion and Equity programs so these bills would effectively eliminate those departments. Its impact on student groups is thus far unclear.

Members of the “Divine Nine” – a set of Black fraternities and sororities established over a hundred years ago – were especially concerned about how the bill would impact their groups.

Shevrin Jones, a Black gay state senator, raised his objections in an OP-ED to MSNBC.

“The governor has denied that such organizations would be affected. And while I am grateful that the Sen. Erin Grall [...] heard those students’ concerns and removed language that could have inflicted great harm to these organizations, I still cannot in good conscience support this general effort to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. This illconceived bill threatens students and their on-campus organizations. And not just Greek organizations but groups such as Florida State’s Black Student Union, the University of South Florida’s Asian Students in America or Spectrum, an LGBTQ rights group at Florida A&M. Students trying to understand the world in which they exist and the inequities in our society would be penalized for doing what we should expect all students to do: analyze their communities and fight for progress. Higher education is supposed to be an experience through which students can explore new topics and be exposed to diversity of thought across various areas of study.”