Weekly Briefing: South Carolina Asks Colleges What They Spend on DEI

Legislators in the state want to know how much public-college money is used for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. ADVERTISEMENT [Weekly Briefing Logo]( Did someone forward you this newsletter? [Sign up free]( to receive your own copy. You can now read The Chronicle on [Apple News]( [Flipboard]( and [Google News](. South Carolina wants to know how much public-college money goes to DEI. South Carolina lawmakers have requested information from the state’s 33 public colleges about, you guessed it, all spending on programs, trainings, and activities targeted toward people based on their race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. The request also seeks information on salaries and operating costs associated with efforts to make campuses more “diverse, equitable, and inclusive.” The document, obtained by The Chronicle, is similar to requests made by state officials in [Florida]( and [Oklahoma](. In Texas, [a bill]( introduced in the Legislature in December would ban funding, promotion, sponsorship, or support of college offices that aim to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion. Last month the conservative Manhattan and Goldwater Institutes revealed a [model bill]( designed to effectively ban mandatory trainings that show staff members how to identify and fight perceived acts of racism. The legislation would also prohibit the hiring of administrators to oversee diversity, equity, and inclusion work, and ban statements that commit institutions, administrators, and faculty members to pursuing social-justice causes. The authors of the model legislation say public institutions shouldn’t use tax dollars to teach or promote one ideology over others. Campus leaders and minority-student advocates say colleges have a duty to better serve communities that have historically been excluded from their institutions, especially as student demographics change. Critics of such anti-DEI efforts also say that cutting the programs could put institutions at risk of losing their accreditation, and may violate federal and state civil-rights laws, like Title IX. Rusty L. Monhollon, president and executive director of South Carolina’s Commission on Higher Education, said he didn’t know which legislators had asked for the information or why. He emailed public-college presidents about the inquiry, saying the lawmakers were “not looking for an audit, just a general overview.” [Read our Adrienne Lu’s story for more](. Related: This week our Sarah Brown spoke with an author of the model legislation aimed at stopping taxpayer funds from going to DEI. When Sarah said she was interviewing him for a newsletter widely read by folks who work in diversity offices, he responded, “That’s awkward. I’m trying to, you know, eliminate their jobs.” [Read the whole interview here](. 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