Ole Miss ending DEI?

Ole Miss recently announced that they are scrapping their Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. It will be replaced by a Division of Access, Opportunity and Community Engagement, which will focus on efforts to increase enrollment.

A report from the Mississippi Center for Public Policy in 2019 found that state universities in Mississippi spent more than $2 million on such programs. Ole Miss spent far and away the most at $1.2 million.

I hope they really do this, but please forgive me if I am somewhat skeptical. We will keep an eye on how the money is shuffled. And if this is a program change, or just a name change.

Let’s also remember that this could have been solved by the legislature.

This past session the state legislature again decided to not consider proposals that would have eliminated funding for DEI programs in any state-funded institution. Sen. Angela Hill sponsored SB 2402, while Rep. Becky Currie sponsored a similar bill in the House, HB 127. Both bills died in committee.

This doesn’t mean they weren’t popular. They are. Nor does it mean that they didn’t have the necessary votes. They almost certainly did. Rather, there was a decision made to not bring the bill up for a vote.

It also doesn’t mean that these teachings do not exist in Mississippi’s public schools and universities. And it does not mean proponents are backing down.

Here is a recent story from Daily Signal:

“The top practitioners of critical race theory just held a weeklong “summer school” in Nashville, Tennessee, to strategize, assess the movement, and debate how best to proselytize the next generation. It was an instructive six days of revolutionary agitprop.

“Two things immediately stood out. The first is that, yes, despite its protestations to the contrary, the architects of CRT know they must focus intently on those who participate in the teaching profession. If CRT is a tool to be used for “revolutionizing a culture,” as its intellectual godfather, Derrick Bell, once put it, it must be implemented by teachers starting in K-12 and through graduate school.”

The goal of these events is certainly to spread the message of systemic racism and Marxist economics. But its primary push is directed toward young students in education departments at universities across the country who don’t even realize what they are being fed. If you do that, they believe, you will be able to indoctrinate the next generation. With your taxpayer dollars.

Next year, the Mississippi legislature will again have the opportunity to correct this. We will ask them to join us. And we will continue to fight.

Are you ready?