Clouds pass over Tiger Stadium on Monday, March 20, 2023, on LSU’s campus in Baton Rouge, La. (Matthew Perschall for Louisiana Illuminator)
LSU could purge more than 1,300 webpages flagged for review because they include the words “diversity,” “equity, “inclusion” and “DEI.”
The review is a response to guidance from President Donald Trump’s administration that threatens to revoke federal funding from campuses that use race-conscious practices in admissions, programming, training, hiring, scholarships and other aspects of student life.
The university shared a list of webpages under scrutiny with campus leaders Friday along with a memo from LSU Deputy General Counsel Trey Jones laying out next steps for complying with the Trump administration.The guidance came in the form of a non-legally binding “dear colleagues” letter Acting Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights Craig Trainor sent to schools earlier this month. The letter advised K-12 schools, colleges and universities to comply by Feb. 28 or risk losing federal funding.
Jones’ memo also urges compliance with the Trump administration’s deadline.
The Illuminator is in the process of reviewing the over 1,300 unique webpages, many of which have already been removed.
The list appears to indiscriminately flag websites that include any mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). It includes 169 faculty profile pages, many of which might have been identified in error.
LSU business faculty members whose research touches on home equity, and scientists whose research focuses on diversity of species have been highlighted as potential problems.
The list included biological sciences professor Kyle Harms’ webpage, which mentions his research is on the topic of ecological diversity.
“The removal of a website on ecological diversity — because it contains an inoffensive target word ‘diversity’ — could almost be laughed off as ridiculously mindless censorship,” Harms said in a statement. “The considerably deeper mindlessness, however, of considering diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to be problematic, is not a joke.”
LSU spokesman Todd Woodward has not yet responded to a request for comment as to whether these mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion would be permitted to remain on LSU’s website.
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LSU has also removed dozens of blog posts and press releases celebrating awards, scholarship and honors from the university’s online historical records. Among those removed was a press release about a professor given a grant to study health equity for Medicaid-eligible children in Louisiana.
LSU edited other webpages to remove references to diversity. The Huel D. Perkins Doctoral Fellowship, named for a longtime LSU administrator who had previously been denied admission to the university because he was Black, now calls on applicants to reach out to the Graduate School for admissions requirements. It previously required applicants to be from a historically underrepresented group.
Two obituaries for former deans of the Manship School of Mass Communication have also been flagged. A write-up of Dean Martin Johnson’s achievements mentions his experience at The Reveille, the university’s student newspaper, and championed a weekly edition co-published with the newspaper of Southern University, a historically Black university in Baton Rouge.
Jones’ memo requires each LSU System campus to make a report on its response to his guidance by Friday.
In addition to removing references to DEI from webpages and physical signage, Jones’ guidance calls for the cessation of graduation ceremonies for affinity groups, such as ceremonies for Black or LGBTQ+ students. It also calls for removing the requirement for diversity statements in hiring, and DEI terms from job titles and descriptions.
The memo reaffirms that race and gender balancing and quotas in hiring are prohibited in the LSU System.
Jones also calls for the elimination of programming that separates students or employees based on race or sex. The guidance states that affinity student organizations are legal if they are open to all students.
The memo also calls for reviewing university-funded memberships in race or sex-specific organizations and professional associations that exclude open membership. The guidance says “continuation of support of those programs must be evaluated” and cancelled “if necessary,” though it does not specify what would cause it to be cancelled.
Scholarships and award programs where race or sex is a factor must also be evaluated, Jones wrote.
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