The University of Kansas is quietly reducing its diversity and inclusion efforts due to political pressures from Republican state lawmakers. The university has merged three campus resource centers, formally for serving minority students, into one new center for student engagement. KU has also shrunken their Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and has assigned its leaders with new job responsibilities. While staff and faculty have found out about the diversity changes, students have not been given any notice. Student organizations have protested the merge of the campus resource centers and fear the ceasing of other programs and resources.

Backlash has lead to new restrictions on diversity initiatives in higher education and some states have even put bans on diversity offices at state institutions. The actions taken by the KU administration is parallel with the actions taken by universities across the country to remove Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs and policies after their states have threatened to hold back funding from schools that support DEI practices. If actions like this continue, students’ fear of programs coming to an end will only get worse.