Last month, Florida’s Board of Governors and Department of Education (FDOE) voted to have diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs banned at public universities that use federal or state spending to fund the programs. This new rule affects 28 schools in Florida, including The University of Florida, Florida State University and Florida International University.
In a press release, Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. said, “These actions today ensure that we will not spend taxpayers’ money supporting DEI and radical indoctrination that promotes division in our society.”
Diversity, equity and inclusion programs and policies help support people of different backgrounds and encourage multiculturalism. According to a Compass journal, DEI programs and policies help combat inequality throughout society.
The rule is now aligned with legislation Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed in May 2023 to defund DEI programs at public colleges.
The Myatt Center for Diversity and Inclusion assists the university in promoting cultural diversity, awareness and sensitivity throughout the community. The center provides programs, services and activities that promote cultural identity and understanding within a multicultural environment.
According to their website, core values of the center include “connection, belonging, inclusivity, equity, acceptance, and accountability.” They hope to provide an environment where students “who are different on many levels, including ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender, military status, religious belief, and life experiences,” feel supported.
The Myatt Center is headed by director Samuel Ortiz, who is in his first year in the position.
“We have this focus on supporting underrepresented students, but we want everyone to be a part of that,” said Ortiz. “We want everyone to learn and grow together, and we really can’t have an inclusive campus environment if we’re ignoring, like, half the student population.”
Regarding Florida’s ban on DEI programs like the Myatt Center, Ortiz said, “it’s essentially going to create a one-size-fits-all type of engagement.” He uses the analogy of giving everyone the same shoe, describing it as “treating everyone exactly the same, but if I do that, a bunch of that group isn’t going to have shoes that actually fit them.”
“In places like Florida, they are saying, ‘No, you have to give everyone the exact same thing regardless of history, regardless of any discrimination, any racism, any prejudice that has existed and still does exist,’” said Ortiz. “‘We’re going to pretend like none of that happened or is happening and we’re just going to treat everyone equally.’”
One reason Florida banned DEI across state universities was to have its higher education “return to its essential foundations of academic integrity and the pursuit of knowledge instead of being corrupted by destructive ideologies,” said Diaz in a press release.
To that, Ortiz said, “I think that’s a really misguided way of looking at success…when students are engaged, when they feel like they belong and they are more likely to be retained, they are more likely to do better academically and more likely to have less mental health struggles. Those are real impacts.”
“Taking away funding for DEI programs doesn’t just hurt underrepresented people, it hurts everyone involved,” said Ortiz. “College environments are less effective and impactful when everyone’s the same, so when you start, whether intentionally or unintentionally, weeding out people of color, LGBTQ people, you start losing that diversity of backgrounds of lived experiences.”
Other states like Wisconsin and Oklahoma are joining Florida in cutting back DEI initiatives or governors have signed orders to defund DEI in public colleges. According to The Chronicle’s DEI Legislation Tracker, such states claim these programs take away valuable financial resources and don’t provide much impact.
Ortiz disagrees.
“Diversity is just a win-win for everybody and the pushback and or lack of diversity is really a selfish one,” said Ortiz.