Students at University of Louisville concerned as Kentucky legislators push forward to defund DEI

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion efforts is moving forward in Kentucky.

On Friday, the Kentucky House voted to subdue funding for diversity, equity and inclusion offices at public universities following an impassioned debate that had a GOP lawmaker dismissing DEI efforts as a failure and Democrats defending them as pillars of support for students from underrepresented groups.

The overhauled bill passed the House by a vote of 68-18, sending it back to the Senate, which passed a much different version. House members stripped away the Senate’s language and inserted a replacement that takes a tougher stand on DEI initiatives at public university campuses. The Senate will decide in coming days whether to accept the new version. The GOP has supermajorities in both chambers.

On Monday, students at the University of Louisville gathered to protest any version of the bill.

"Unfortunately not surprised by the empty words we've been given by [Kim] Schatzel and her administration," said protester Elizabeth Hinsdale.

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.

The effort to roll back DEI initiatives in Kentucky is part of a much broader Republican campaign featuring bills in several states that would restrict such initiatives or require their public disclosure.

In Kentucky, the House-passed version would ban race-based scholarships and defund DEI offices and staff positions. It would prohibit the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, which oversees public universities, from approving degrees that require courses containing “discriminatory concepts.”

Hinsdale and Savannah Dowell are two students at the University of Louisville who are majoring in Women's, Gender and Sexuality studies. They worry that topics they learn about will fall under what is described as "discriminatory concepts" if SB 6 becomes law.

"If I am not able to study what I want to at this university or any in Kentucky, I'm left with no choice but to transfer out of state," Dowell said.

Democrats said the backlash to the anti-DEI bill could include economic boycotts, students leaving the state for college and perhaps hurt efforts by Kentucky’s university’s to recruit Black student-athletes.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year ending affirmative action at universities has created a new legal landscape around diversity programs in the workplace and civil society.

Other students are unsure what it would mean for their scholarships. Mya Jackson was awarded a Porter scholarship, which are awarded to Black or African American students in the Louisville area.

"We are frightened we will lose our chance to be here," Jackson said.

Michael Frazier, who is with Kentucky Student Rights Coalition, said the Porter scholarship would reman unaffected. Frazier supports Senate Bill 6.

Frazier said DEI is just for optics.

"When we talk about DEI, we're not talking about actual things that promote diversity," Frazier said. "We're talking about things that are used to tokenize diversity."

Frazier argues funding spent on DEI should go to resource centers doing meaningful work.

Related Stories:

Students at University of Louisville concerned as Kentucky legislators push forward to defund DEI