Lawmakers question cost, role of university diversity offices

Several Republican lawmakers who were behind a bill to require the state’s university system to promote intellectual diversity are questioning the size, role and cost of diversity offices.

The lawmakers, which include the House and Senate leadership, sent a letter to the South Dakota Board of Regents this month ahead of a June 26 meeting in which the Regents will consider how to implement the new intellectual diversity law, which takes effect July 1. The law requires universities to submit annual reports detailing what they did to promote intellectual diversity, and the law prohibits universities from curtailing free speech rights.

The letter questions whether diversity offices are a hindrance to intellectual diversity because the diversity offices promote left-wing ideology.

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“While beneficial programs for Native American students, and students of other diverse cultures should be preserved, the build-up of diversity offices which are used to promote social justice causes associated with the political left such as safe zone training, the biannual drag show, and social justice training, to name just a few, should be dismantled,” the lawmakers write.

The lawmakers estimate that diversity offices employ 31 people and cost nearly $6 million a year.

Rep. Sue Peterson, a sponsor of the intellectual diversity bill and one of the lawmakers who signed the letter, said diversity offices appear to be promoting ideology. Meanwhile, Native Americans, the state’s largest minority group, are struggling to graduate.

“Whatever they’re spending on the diversity offices, it isn’t making a very good impact,” said Peterson, a Sioux Falls Republican.

Most taxpayers of South Dakota, she added, would not want their money spent on the activities promoted by diversity offices, and she noted that lawmakers had not approved

Paul Beran, the executive director of the Board of Regents, said the role of diversity offices is to prepare students to work among other cultures. Businesses that recruit students want employees who can be sent anywhere in the world and adjust to different cultures.

“What we’re trying to do is teach cultural awareness and cultural diversity and helping people understand that,” Beran said. “Let’s face it, South Dakota is a relatively homogenous state from an ethnic perspective.”

Most students, he added, have not had friends, teachers or supervisors who are people of color. The country is becoming more diverse, and he said it’s important for the state’s graduates to understand those cultures.

But Peterson, who reviewed reports from university diversity offices, said she found references about social justice training, safe zone training and references to diversity officials overseeing university hiring practices.

“I’m not seeing anything from those offices that is helping students work in multi-national corporations,” she said.

Ultimately, she added, as the state begins to implement the new law, intellectual diversity needs to be high on the priority list when it comes faculty hiring, speakers and other aspects of university life.