LSU is in the midst of complying with an order from the U.S. Department of Education calling for public schools and universities to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs and prevent race-based discrimination.
The ‘dear colleague’ letter, issued by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights on Feb. 14, said “discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is illegal and morally reprehensible.” It also cited the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard in which it ruled that factoring racial preferences into college admissions is illegal.
“LSU has received and is addressing the ‘dear colleague’ letter from the Department of Education issued last week,” LSU Board of Supervisors Chair Scott Ballard said at Friday’s board meeting.
The letter sent by the Department of Education isn’t legally binding, but it did contain threats to withhold federal funding if not complied with.
LSU officials have been instructed to eliminate all references to DEI on university websites and materials and review “student, academic or campus programming which separates, segregates or otherwise differentiates students or employees based on race or sex,” according to a memo obtained by the Reveille sent by LSU’s general counsel’s office to LSU Vice President of Strategy and Public Policy Jason Droddy and the heads of the satellite schools within the LSU system.
The memo also asked LSU officials to end separate graduation ceremonies for certain demographics and diversity initiatives in hiring, as well as evaluate the future of scholarship programs for which race is a factor.
In addition, LSU sent out to senior colleges a spreadsheet of over 1,300 university website pages that contained keywords related to “diversity,” “equity” and “inclusion.” According to a spokesperson, the list was created by an automatic webcrawler that identified pages with the keywords.
This also resulted in the identification of unrelated pages, such as pages under the School of Agriculture that mention biodiversity.
The spokesperson said the list was meant to aid those overseeing senior college websites, but they’re encouraged to use their best judgment.
The “primary focus is identifying existing DEI programs and initiatives and the associated websites,” the spokesperson said, and archival material is “permissible.”
The Board of Supervisors was already set to receive a report from LSU on Feb. 28 detailing the entirety of its DEI programs, including curriculum and senior college departments, as requested in its October resolution. Ballard said that deadline had been moved back to March 7 so that the report could be aligned to the new federal instructions.
