Anti-DEI bill to end mandated 'divisive concepts' passes KY Senate
On Feb. 13, the Kentucky Senate passed legislation designed to reduce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at public colleges and universities.
Senate Bill 6 passed the state senate by a vote of 26–7, meaning it will now move to the Kentucky House of Representatives for another vote.
On Feb. 13, the Kentucky Senate passed legislation designed to reduce Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) at public colleges and universities.
Senate Bill 6 passed the state senate by a vote of 26–7, meaning it will now move to the Kentucky House of Representatives for another vote. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, proponents of the bill argued during a two-hour-long debate that the bill would promote free speech and intellectual diversity.
“If I’m being wheeled into the emergency room to have brain surgery … do I look around at the brain surgery team and say ‘woah, is there diversity on this team?,’” State Senator John Schickel reportedly said. “No, I want the best darn team in there with the most expertise.”
As Campus Reform previously reported, the legislation was originally introduced on Jan. 3 by Senate Majority Whip Mike Wilson.
The bill states that students and employees of public colleges, as well as applicants, shall not “[b]e required to endorse a specific ideology or political viewpoint to be eligible for admission, hiring, contract renewal, tenure, promotion, research approval, graduation, or any other benefit and an institution shall not ask the ideological or political viewpoint of a student, job applicant, job candidate, employee, or candidate for promotion or tenure.”
It also prohibits forcing students to support “divisive concepts,” including, “An individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously,” and “The Commonwealth of Kentucky or the United States of America is fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist.”
The legislation grants authority to the state attorney general’s office to enforce compliance within educational institutions.
Earlier this month, University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto publicly denounced the bill, writing in a campus-wide message, “The truth is that our world and our state are changing. We are growing more diverse. Indeed, we must, if our state is to grow economically. We should embrace that change and harness the opportunities it presents, not shrink from it.”
[RELATED: More colleges are seeking to institutionalize DEI through rubrics, diversity statements]
According to Spectrum News, Senator Wilson has said that, “Diversity of thought should be welcomed in our universities and higher education. But we’ve seen a trend across the United States of forcing faculty, in order to remain employed, to formally endorse a set of beliefs that may be contrary to their own, all in violation of the First Amendment.”
Similarly, Senator Phillip Wheeler argued that the bill would help colleges “get to a balance, to where we’re no longer looked at as the oppressors and the oppressees, that we are each judged on our own merit.”
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville, Eastern Kentucky University, and Western Kentucky University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
