Wichita State University’s Provost Monica Lounsbery announced to faculty and staff on Monday afternoon that WSU will begin taking steps to comply with a recent Kansas Senate bill and federal policies by eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion programming and funding.
The message, sent by email and text, also told university employees to remove “gender identifying pronouns or gender ideology” from signatures on their WSU email accounts by July 15.
In the announcement, Lounsbery referenced section four of Kansas Senate Bill 125. The bill, which details the state budget until 2027, prohibits state agencies from having positions related to diversity, equity and inclusion as well as any DEI-related policies, programs and activities. Universities will need to certify that they are in compliance with the proviso by August 1.
State grants relating to DEI are also to be canceled, and employees are to remove pronouns from their state email accounts, according to the legislation. Lounsbery, who previously said WSU was “out of compliance” with national and state anti-DEI initiatives, said other forms of university communication will also be impacted.
At a meeting of WSU’s Faculty Senate the same day, Lounsbery discussed the directive.
“We’re trying to learn more about where gender identifying information is also embedded on communications and trying to understand if this proviso requires also the removal of those pronouns,” Lounsbery said. “… Other forms of communication we’re thinking might include identifiers on Zoom — in that kind of communication.”
Some faculty expressed concerns about the constitutionality of the proviso and the broader implications of increasing crackdowns on diversity, equity and inclusion policies and initiatives.
Atul Rai, a faculty senator and associate professor of accounting, asked whether the legislature had considered whether the proviso may violate the First Amendment. Stacia Boden, general counsel for WSU, told the senate that, to her knowledge, official communication of state employees can be subject to restrictions.
“I don’t know if the legislators who passed this considered the constitutionality of that, I can’t speak to that,” Boden said. “… What the legislature has done is restrict employee conduct through their communication. There is not a First Amendment Right, most courts agree, to employee communication.”
Sen. Rachel Showstack expressed concerns that the proviso is broad enough to impact other aspects of faculty’s work.
“I am going to be … applying for funding and the titles of the opportunity might include the word ‘equity,’” Showstack, an associate professor of Spanish and linguistics, said.
After the senate meeting, Lounsbery told The Sunflower that she isn’t sure yet how the university will ensure that faculty and staff comply with the instructions.
“Our campus community isn’t really around in the summertime, and so that’s why it was important for us to send the email out and kind of learn from, you know, whatever guidance we can be given about how that will be monitored,” Lounsbery said. “So we’re not really quite sure what that looks like yet, but we do know because it’s explicitly mentioned in the proviso that we do need to remove gender identifying pronouns … in the emails for all employees.”
Lounsbery said during the senate meeting that university leadership is “working to get greater details” on what exactly is required by the proviso.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include information from the Faculty Senate meeting on May 12.
