Presidents of the University of Louisville, University of Kentucky, Western Kentucky University, Murray State University, and Eastern Kentucky University all spoke before the Interim Joint Committee on Education in Frankfort Tuesday.
The universities also each submitted detailed reports, describing their DEI officers and salaries and explaining the missions of their various offices. The presidents fielded questions about whether they have mandatory DEI training and if they required prospective employees or students to commit to DEI efforts.
University of Louisville President Kim Schatzel defended the university’s Office of Institutional Equity, saying it supports all students collectively to help them succeed at the university. The university reported they will spend just over $4 million dollars on DEI employee salaries this year.
“Equity means no preference, no bias, no discrimination,” Schatzel said. “Institutional Equity, where we feel all is all. No students are left behind.”
Schatzel described a number of programs she had implemented since becoming the university’s president in 2022, like a center designated for “military-connected students.” When a lawmaker questioned the need for a specific office outside of the federally mandated requirements, Schatzel said she doesn’t want the university to merely be compliant.
“[That means] reaching the bottom bar of acceptance from a regulatory status, rather than really reaching above that and innovating and supporting to the highest limit that we can be able to do that,” Schatzel said.
Eli Capilouto, president of the University of Kentucky, told lawmakers about his decision to dissolve the campus’s DEI office and reassign its staff with new titles. He also said the university would recommit itself to institutional neutrality and decline to take a stance on partisan issues and current events. Northern Kentucky University disbanded its Office of Inclusive Excellence last month.
When he made the announcement in an email to staff, Capilouto specifically referenced unsuccessful legislative efforts earlier this year to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and offices at public universities.
Paris Republican Sen. Stephen West, the committee’s co-chair, asked if the University of Kentucky’s changes were substantive.
“Some of the rumors are that with this change, the mission will be the same, but only the name will change,” West said, asking Capilouto to comment.
Capilouto said that the mission of the university remains the same — to advance Kentucky forward, making it “healthier, wealthier, wiser” — but the job descriptions of certain employees did shift to be more inclusive of all students.
Some Democratic lawmakers expressed dismay that the legislature continued to question DEI goals and initiatives. Rep. Tina Bojanowski from Louisville said she was “embarrassed we are here today.”
Lexington Sen. Reggie Thomas said he remembered when University of Kentucky had few Black students and even fewer Black faculty — one of the reasons he was recruited to teach at the university in 1980. He asked Capilouto if he really believed eliminating the university’s Office for Institutional Diversity was in the school’s best interest.
Capilouto said he made the decision after speaking with “dozens of faculty, staff and students” and said he worries about future legislation designed to curtail DEI infringing on academic freedom.
WKU, EKU and Murray State said in their legislative reports that their institutional diversity or equity offices are largely aimed at federal and state requirements like Title IX and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“While we don't have an Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, I will say that we are a campus that is welcome to all,” said EKU President David T. McFaddin. “It just so happens that our institution is the No. 4 institution in the nation for embracing free speech.”
McFaddin referenced the ranking via the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE.
Republican Rep. Josh Calloway, from Irvington, announced online before the meeting that he’s already planning on filing a bill that would eliminate the current requirement that state colleges submit diversity plans to meet “equal educational opportunity goals.” Under current state law, if the institution fails to meet those goals, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education will postpone the approval of any new programs.
Calloway asked the three universities if they find the diversity plans are difficult to achieve given their various locations and the demographics of the surrounding populations.
McFaddin said EKU has a specific mission to advance the narrative and communities of its region.
“That's a mission specific activity for us that maybe isn't always recognized in perhaps some of the ways that we allocate funds and we reward the work that's going on,” McFaddin said. “I think that’s probably got some room for some conversation going forward.”
Although efforts to limit or eliminate DEI at public colleges ultimately fell short at the end of this year’s session, some lawmakers have expressed interest in carrying them forward next year. Tuesday’s meeting is the second time this interim session that DEI has been the primary topic of discussion.
