Virginia universities drop DEI requirements after scrutiny from Gov. Youngkin

Two Virginia universities have scrapped plans that would have required undergraduate students to take courses related to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, after pushback from Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin.

Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason University both announced recently they’d no longer be instituting the DEI course requirement for the upcoming fall semester, according to Inside Higher Ed.

In March, Youngkin’s office announced in March that it would investigate the DEI mandates at VCU and George Mason to determine whether they constitute ideological indoctrination.

A spokesman for the governor’s office told the outlet that it heard concerns that the requirement was “a thinly veiled attempt to incorporate the progressive left’s groupthink on Virginia’s students.”

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The spokesman told Inside Higher Ed that the decision to scrap the requirement was made by each institution individually.

VCU’s Board of Visitors voted 10 to 5 on Friday to reject the plan for a “racial literacy” course requirement. 

It was set to go into effect last fall, but school officials said there weren’t enough classes to support the requirement.

George Mason’s Interim Provost Kenneth D. Walsh announced on Wednesday that the program would be delayed one year, but not scrapped completely.
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“It is clear that some constituencies, including some members of our Board of Visitors, still have reservations,” wrote Walsh. “Given that fall registration opens for first-year students in a matter of weeks, we must put forward a definitive answer now.”

“And my answer to whether to implement the requirement is neither ‘yes’ nor ‘no.’ Rather, it is ‘not yet.,’” he added.