Cal State system mandates DEI graduation courses including ‘Queer Crip Lit’ and ‘Chican@/Latinx Lives’

20 schools in the California State University System (Cal State) continue to require Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) courses, despite federal scrutiny.

A new report from The Washington Free Beacon revealed that all but two Cal State universities mandate DEI courses.

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The Cal State system does not require its schools to mandate these courses, but does include a “Diversity/Inclusivity Style Guide” on its website that was last updated in August.

“As the country’s most diverse and largest public four-year institution of higher learning, the California State University has a particular obligation in setting the example for inclusiveness,” the guide says.

Most of the required courses focus on various identities, such as race and gender. 

California State Polytechnic University at Humboldt, for example, requires students to take two Diversity & Common Ground courses: one focused on domestic studies and the other on international topics.

Possible course options that fulfill the requirements include “Chican@/Latinx Lives,” “Power/Privilege: Gender and Race, Sex, Class,” “Decolonizing Public Health,” or “Introduction to Black Studies.”

“Power/Privilege: Gender and Race, Sex, Class,” introduces students to “[h]ow gender is shaped by race, class, and sexuality” and “relations of power and privilege within contemporary US society.”

A spokesman for the university noted that the “graduation requirements are typically ‘double counted’ with other general education and/or major requirements and do not add units to the degree program.”

Similarly, San Francisco State University maintains a “American Ethnic and Racial Minorities” requirement, with course options including “Vietnamese American Identities,” “Queer(ing) Narrative Literature,” “Queer Crip Lit,” and “Decolonize Your Diet: Food Justice and Gendered Labor in Communities of Color.”

As Campus Reform has previously reported, the academic field of “crip studies,” often paired with “queer studies,” studies the perspective of disabled people.

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California State University at Bakersfield requires students to fulfill a Junior-Year Diversity and Reflection Requirement.

“The requirement also helps students develop an understanding of dimensions of human diversity and approaches for successful interactions with others in an increasingly diverse and global society,” a university spokesman told Campus Reform.

“In addition to self-knowledge, students develop intercultural knowledge and the ability to recognize and navigate diversity through investigation of the cultural values and history, language, traditions, arts, and social institutions of a group of people,” the requirement description says.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January targeting universities that continue to maintain DEI offices and initiatives. The order threatens to remove federal funding from universities that fail to comply.

Do No Harm, senior director of programs, Laura Morgan, criticized the Cal State course requirements for valuing identity over education in comments to The Washington Free Beacon.

“These classes are based on concepts that have roots in critical race theory and promote ideology instead of sound learning principles,” she said.

“As a taxpayer-funded system, [Cal State] is obligated to prioritize education instead of operating a factory for politically indoctrinated activists,” she continued.

A 2024 report from Speech First discovered that 67 percent of American universities require some form of DEI course for students to graduate.

Campus Reform contacted the universities mentioned in this article. This article will be updated accordingly.