LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Myalache Jackson said her scholarship has made all the difference in her ability to attend the University of Louisville.
"If it were not for this financial aid, I would not be here getting my education because like many of us, I do not have the means to go to college," Jackson said Monday morning while surrounded by a few dozen students outside Grawemeyer Hall on U of L's main campus.
Jackson, a freshman, is a recipient of the Woodford R. Porter Scholarship, which has historically been awarded to Black students from the Louisville-area. But she worries she may lose the scholarship, however, if Kentucky lawmakers follow through with anti-DEI, or "diversity, equity and inclusion," legislation moving in Frankfort.
Jackson was among dozens of U of L students and faculty members who protested the anti-DEI efforts in a rally Monday targeted not only at Republican lawmakers but also at U of L President Kim Schatzel and her staff.
The students and professors said university administrators and the school's board of trustees haven't been forceful enough in opposing the anti-DEI efforts.
On Friday, the state House passed an overridden version of Senate Bill 6. If enacted, the legislation would do away with diversity-focused offices and administrative jobs and race-based scholarships.
Republican proponents have said DEI efforts are themselves divisive and discriminatory.
"We want to seek diversity of viewpoint; we want to look past the color of the skin," Rep. Jennifer Decker, R-Waddy, said during a committee hearing Friday.
Part of the U of L students' ire Monday was directed at their own leaders.
An hour before the demonstration began, Schatzel sent a campus-wide email offering her strongest statement yet on the anti-DEI efforts.
Schatzel said her stance is that of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and other Kentucky college leaders.
"(W)e cannot, without equivocation, support any legislation that limits the university's diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in support of our highest priority – success for ALL University of Louisville students," she said in the email.
