Kansas State University offers 8k DEI certificate
The certificate is offered as lawmakers accuse the university of skirting the state’s anti-DEI law.
The 15-credit program costs more than $8,300 and includes multiple DEI-focused courses.
Kansas State University is offering students the opportunity to take an $8,300 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) business certificate.
According to the university’s website, the “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging in Business Undergraduate Certificate” provides students a “focused specialty area of study that builds skills to strategically manage a multicultural and identity-diverse workforce.”
[RELATED: Williams College agrees to remove DEI language to comply with federal funding rules]
The online program requires 15 credit hours, costing $555.95 per hour for a total of $8,339.25.
The university advertises the program as a chance to take advantage of “increasing opportunities” in DEI business careers. According to the site, companies are hiring “analysts,” “project managers,” and other positions that require DEI skills.
“This certificate will prepare you to be a leader in fostering diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in business,” the school says.
The core curriculum for the certificate includes “Managing for Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace,” whose description is listed in an archived catalog. That catalog says that the course offers students a “framework for understanding how diversity and a culture of inclusion interfaces with all aspects of an organization.”
Students also learn how to develop a DEI plan at an “organizational level.”
The certificate also requires “Intercultural Competence in Institutions,” “Culture and Context in Leadership,” “Organizational Behavior,” and “International Management.”
In addition to the core, students must take one elective course. Some of the elective options are “African American Perspectives,” “Selected Studies of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies,” and “Gender, Class, Race and the Media.” Students can also take a course in “Gender Issues in the Workplace.”
The university is offering the program at a time when state lawmakers are more broadly accusing the school of avoiding Kansas’ anti-DEI law.
[RELATED: University of Washington scraps job posting after DEI loyalty pledge exposed]
State universities, including Kansas State, are “rebranding these programs to do the same things that the Legislature has explicitly prohibited,” Senate Majority Leader Chase Blasi said earlier this month.
Kansas’ current budget, passed in March, prohibits public funding for DEI, including at state universities.
Since then, Kansas State has removed its Spectrum Center for LGBT-identifying students and renamed its DEI office to the “Office of Access and Opportunity.”
Campus Reform reported in October about a similar case happening at the Harvard Division of Continuing Education, which continues to offer an “Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Leadership Graduate Certificate” for $13,760. The school promises that students will “gain critical knowledge and skills to address bias and marginalization and to foster an inclusive corporate culture.”
Campus Reform contacted Kansas State University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
