Opponents of diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education argue that dismantling DEI offices and initiatives on campus won’t negatively impact the academic freedom of faculty to teach relevant subject matter in their classes.
So how do they explain what happened recently in Virginia?
Early this semester, in an apparent effort to thwart new diversity requirements in general education curricula at Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University, Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration requested and received syllabi for 27 courses. The courses, which had already been approved by faculty and some of which had already been taught, included everything from “Race and Racism in the United States” to “Modern Architecture” and “Peoples and Cultures of India.” But the governor’s syllabi requests of these two public universities have placed the future of the courses — and the general education requirements — in question.
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It’s important to recognize how unique and alarming the governor’s action is. Despite an escalating campaign of educational gag orders and DEI bans being adopted in state legislatures, this is the first instance in recent memory in which a state department of education, acting entirely on its own and with no supporting law on the books, has targeted curricular requirements or syllabi of individual faculty for their content or viewpoint.
This action comes after Youngkin’s recent claims to be “extremely worried” about the state of free speech on campus, and assertions that colleges should “challenge beliefs” and “foster informed debate.” His secretary of education, Aimee Rogstad Guidera, similarly expressed a desire to build “a culture of freedom and open discourse” on campus because “free speech and open inquiry are non-negotiable.”
Even so, the governor’s spokesman justified the syllabi request by describing the 27 courses not as examples of faculty members engaging in open inquiry but as a “thinly veiled attempt to incorporate the progressive left’s groupthink on Virginia’s students.” Apparently, the governor only supports challenging the beliefs of those with whom he disagrees.
Beyond Virginia, perhaps the most significant impact of the Youngkin administration’s recent action is what it proves about government attacks on DEI initiatives within universities — in the end, they inevitably impact the academic freedom of faculty.
House Speaker Don Scott Jr. said: "It's poor timing and tone-deaf leadership" for the governor to require two universities to submit course information on race while "trying to negotiate with people who are African American."
The argument that DEI can be banned by statute without impacting faculty speech is common among DEI opponents. Heritage Foundation visiting fellow and vocal DEI opponent Adam Kissel, for instance, has insisted that state governments “should not interfere with the academic freedom to have robust discussions in class,” but should instead “assert its prerogative over the content of the curriculum.” Manhattan Institute senior fellow and New College of Florida Trustee Christopher Rufo has opposed restrictions on classroom speech, but has argued that DEI offices should be “abolished” and that governments should “use political power” to shape their initiatives and curricula.
As the Virginia case demonstrates, the flaw in this line of thinking is that undermining universities’ independence from the ideological dictates of politicians inevitably leads to restrictions on the classroom.
The trickle-down effect on campus speech has already become clear in Texas, which banned DEI offices and initiatives last year. A visiting speaker who had planned to give a talk at the University of Texas-Austin about how to find a mentor on campus was told that her speech violated the law because it included anecdotes about her own experiences as an LGBTQ+ student; even after she changed the content of her speech, her talk was canceled. And faculty at Texas public universities have reported being forced to change course titles, “remove any DEI language from our website and reframe any committees or initiatives focused on these issues.”
Virginia Commonwealth University students marched through downtown Richmond on Saturday afternoon in protest of Gov. Glenn Youngkin's ask to review racial literacy syllabi materials from VCU.
The Youngkin administration, however, has gone even further by transforming an attack on DEI into an attack on faculty. By targeting specific faculty syllabi, the governor has engaged — as VCU’s faculty union put it — in an “unprecedented overreach” and a “form of attack on academic freedom and the First Amendment right to free speech on our college campuses.”
The faculty are right. In his zeal to fight “groupthink” on campus, the governor has imposed his own version of groupthink at Virginia colleges. And in doing so, he has ripped off the mask of attacks on DEI and revealed the truth: Faculty speech and academic freedom have been in danger all along.
Jeremy C. Young is the Freedom to Learn program director at PEN America. Contact Young at jyoung@pen.org. Sam LaFrance is the editorial manager for free expression and education at PEN America. Contact LaFrance at slafrance@pen.org.