Mia Hennen

Kansas Board of Regents Chair Jon Rolph speaks during the Dec. 14, 2022, meeting of KBOR.

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) statements are now prohibited in all university admissions and job applications after the practice received criticism from Kansas lawmakers. The Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) passed the policy unanimously last week after less than four minutes of presentation and discussion.

The policy will prohibit all state universities from requiring “statements pledging allegiance to or support for or opposition to diversity, equity or inclusion” in admissions and the hiring, reappointing, or promoting of faculty members.

Jon Rolph, a KBOR chairman, said that the policy is part of a “good faith effort” to listen to the Kansas legislature, which takes the wants and needs of its constituents into consideration. 

According to Rolph, DEI statements are “not something we want to practice anymore” and have not been widely in place since the policy’s initial introduction last year.

When the board last met in February, Rolph defended DEI initiatives, stating that removing diversity statement requirements would “impact the lives of real people.”

Wichita State University admissions does not require a diversity statement, as it is an open admissions campus, but the university does ask for diversity statements on job applications. The newly passed policy will require the university to remove DEI and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) statements from its applications.

The live stream of the session can be viewed on the KBOR YouTube page.