UT Austin scans website in audit to remove prohibited DEI-related events
The audit is conducted in accordance with Texas state law SB17, which bans DEI offices or programming at higher education institutions in the state.
The University of Texas at Austin is reportedly flagging its website for DEI-related words to find programs or events being advertised that are not currently allowed under state law.
The audits are a part of the university’s efforts to flag and remove any event on its website that advertises DEI-focused events, as reported by KXAN. The University says that the audits are part of a routine review, having found 13,000 different instances on its website that are related to DEI.
Terms that the University flagged included “colonizer,” “safe space,” “underserved,” “Latino,” and “gay,” according to The Houston Chronicle.
Under Texas law SB17, universities are prohibited from promoting or fostering DEI-related programs, activities, offices, or trainings on campus.
UT Austin’s website states that the University of Texas System implemented policies to be compliant with the state law, ensuring that “[P]ublic institutions of higher education cannot engage in certain specified diversity, equity, and inclusion activities as defined in the statute.”
UT Austin’s assistant vice president for communications told The Houston Chronicle that “The University routinely scans its website as a means to identify programming or events, unrelated to academic and research functions, that may not be permitted under SB17,” adding that, “The scans were first implemented in Fall 2023 in advance of the law’s effective date and include a list of terms that are guides for identifying potentially non-compliant functions that require review.”
The university was not flagging keywords or phrases necessarily because they are banned, but because they could be linked to events or programs that are occurring at the institution that put the school out of compliance with state law.
The University’s Director of Digital Strategy, Chris Sullivan, stated in an email to administrators that most words reviewed in the audit were linked to allowed content at the university, being exempt from SB17 as they relate to research activities or course materials.
Categories that the audit covered ranged from diversity, equity, and inclusion, to race, sexuality, and gender.
