University of Wyoming scraps DEI department after state cuts funding

The University of Wyoming announced Friday that it will dismantle its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). 

The university revealed that it will also no longer “require job candidates to submit statements regarding [DEI] and no longer [evaluate] employees’ commitment to DEI in annual performance evaluations.”

UW stated that the decision came after the Wyoming state legislature axed more than $1.7 million from the school’s budget, and further “directed that no state dollars be spent on the DEI office, effective July 1, 2024.”

[RELATED: Virginia universities drop DEI requirements after scrutiny from Gov. Youngkin]

UW President Ed Seidel explained the decision: “We received a strong message from the state’s elected officials to change our approach to DEI issues. At the same time, we have heard from our community that many of the services that might have incorrectly been categorized under DEI are important for the success of our students, faculty and staff. These initial steps are a good-faith effort on the part of the university to respond to legislative action while maintaining essential services.”

Seidel will also look into “about a dozen others regarding practices and programs that might generally be categorized as giving preferential treatment to certain groups of people.”

A UW spokesperson told Campus Reform that the “practices and programs” mentioned could be found in the “DEI working group” report. Such initiatives include “[a]dmissions practices,” “DEI advisory councils, task forces, and committees,” and “[h]osting, inviting, or sponsoring speakers.”

The university also announced, however, that it is “committed to maintaining services to students that, in some cases, have existed for decades.”

It clarified that “[a]mong the UW activities and programs that won’t be changed are those addressing requirements necessary for athletic and academic accreditation compliance” and “requirements for access programs for military veterans, Pell Grant recipients, first-generation college students, nontraditional students, low-income students or people with disabilities,” among others. 

Wyoming Republican State Rep. Harriet Hageman praised UW’s abolishing its DEI office, telling The National Desk: “The ‘woke’ nonsense that is DEI has been a failure wherever it has been implemented. It doesn’t produce smarter students or prepare them for a lifetime of success, nor does it benefit the University of Wyoming. Merit should be the determining factor in admissions, grading, and athletics, not the artificial and biased standards of DEI.”

UW’s decision comes in the wake of other universities curbing DEI on campus. 

[RELATED: UT Dallas shutters DEI office in light of new Texas law]

Recently, for example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced it will stop forcing faculty applicants to submit DEI statements.