Foundation petitions for Texas school to use gender-neutral scholarship language in response to anti-DEI law
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Foundation wants to change the language of a scholarship because it believes that doing so would comply with the state’s anti-DEI law.
The UTRGV Foundation believes that because the fund requires its applicants to be women, it does not comply with Senate Bill 17, which prohibits DEI-based programming in higher education.
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Foundation wants to change the language of a scholarship because it believes that doing so would comply with the state’s anti-DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) law.
The scholarship is administered by the Ruth and Katherine Dugger Endowment Fund and is awarded to women seeking graduate school to further study biology at UTRGV, myRGV.com reports. The UTRGV Foundation, however, believes that because the fund requires its applicants to be women, it does not comply with Senate Bill 17, which prohibits DEI-based programming in higher education.
[RELATED: USF courses will stop brainwashing students that U.S. is ‘racist, sexist’]
S.B. 17, which was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott last year, defines DEI as including “promoting differential treatment of or providing special benefits to individuals on the basis of race, color, or ethnicity.”
The UTRGV Foundation has reportedly filed a petition with a state district court in order to alter the endowment fund of the scholarship. The foundation is also said to have paused the distribution of the scholarship until the endowment’s language is gender-neutral.
Because the original donors, Ruth and Katherine Dugger, have passed away, the foundation reportedly needs approval from a judge to permanently change the language of the fund. Until it receives that approval, the foundation cannot award the fund to anymore students.
The petition was filed on Aug. 5 and has not received a hearing date thus far.
“We support the Foundation’s efforts to update the scholarship criteria to ensure compliance with federal and state laws while preserving the core intent of the Dugger sisters’ generous gift,” the school told myRGV.com. “The proposed changes maintain the scholarship’s focus on graduate students in biology conducting field research on local flora and fauna.”
Earlier this month, Campus Reform reported that the University of North Texas removed various DEI-based faculty groups in order to comply with S.B. 17.
“Complying with the law does not change our commitment to our people and our mission,” Provost McPherson wrote in an email announcing the change.
Campus Reform has reached out to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
