Florida’s university system prohibits funding political “activism,” programs that segregate by race or sex

The Board of Governors of the Florida State University System on Thursday approved rules that will prohibit the use of state funds for programs based on race or sex, according to Inside Higher Ed.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 266 in June, which forbids the funding of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) for higher education, in the state. The new regulations define DEI as “any program, campus activity, or policy that classifies people based on race, color, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation” and promotes different treatments to people based on these factors, seconds in Inside Higher Ed.

The new law prohibits the state’s public universities from using state funding for any programs related to “diversity, equity and inclusion” or “political or social activism.” The law allows student organizations, paid for by student fees, to operate “without prejudice to any speech or expressive activity of such organizations that would otherwise violate this subsection.”

“What it does is reorient our universities to their traditional mission, and part of that traditional mission is to treat people as individuals, not try to divide them based on any kind of superficial characteristics,” DeSantis said. said after signing the bill into law in May.

Other Republican states are also investigating DEI.

republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill that bans public funding for DEI at public colleges and universities.

The University of South Carolina rebranded its DEI efforts after an investigation by the Legislature. Wisconsin Republicans retained salary increases for Wisconsin University System employees and voted to cut the system’s budget by $32 million, the amount it spends on DEI every two years.

The University of Arkansas suspended its DEI department and moved employees to other departments in June, seconds in Higher Ed Dive. Arkansas Republican state Sen. Dan Sullivan is leading an investigation into DEI programs at Arkansas universities, he told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“This board has chosen to impose more restrictive and harmful burdens on Florida students, beyond what [the DeSantis] “The administration’s ‘hate board’ was able to affect the last legislative session and exceeded its oversight authority,” said Quinn Diaz, public policy associate at LGBTQ+ advocacy nonprofit Equality Florida, in Inside Higher Ed.

DeSantis and the Board of Governors did not immediately respond to DCNF’s request for comment.

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