SALT LAKE CITY — Shortly after taking office in 2023, Republican state Rep. Katy Hall heard from constituents complaining about how their adult children were required to write diversity, equity and inclusion statements while applying for medical and dental schools and other graduate programs in Utah.

“It doesn’t seem right,” Hall said. “It doesn’t seem like it belongs in an application.”

It took two legislative sessions, but Hall successfully sponsored a new law that not only prohibits the use of such DEI statements but also bars state institutions from relying on specific individual characteristics in employment and education decisions. Additionally, it eliminates central offices dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion.

In Utah and beyond, lawmakers are enjoying growing success in their pushback against DEI programs at public universities, many of which have hired administrators and established departments dedicated to creating more diverse faculties and student bodies. Some schools’ requirement that job and student applicants explain in writing how they’d bring DEI initiatives to their work or schooling has aroused especially strong opposition. Some states have dismantled DEI departments and programs, as well as ended race- and gender-based programs and scholarships.

Many in Utah describe their approach as more measured than that of other states. The law, which goes into effect July 1, includes a carve-out that allows DEI to be discussed in classroom instruction as well as in research and for accreditation purposes.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox, who signed Hall’s in January, said it “offers a balanced solution” even as it prohibits the type of training sessions he required of his staff in 2021.

The intent of the legislation, Hall said, is to shift higher education away from a focus on identity.

“This is what we felt was a more nuanced way to say: ‘We want diversity, we want equality of opportunity, we want inclusion, but we want diversity of opinion and a diversity of thought and diversity of religion and diversity of everything.’ Not just external, personal identity characteristics,” Hall said.

“We used to be able to have discussions about politics without it coming to a judgment of someone’s moral character,” she added. “My hope is that there will be a little more political neutrality where you can have discussions and feel safe to have those discussions without it being so divisive.”

But the bill passed along party lines, pointed out state Rep. Angela Romero, a Democrat who serves as the House minority leader in Utah. She described what’s happening in her state as part of a broader culture war aimed at painting higher education as elite and out of touch.

“This is a national agenda,” Romero said in an interview. “It’s a machine and it’s been going for a while and it’s picking up momentum.”

Utah’s rollback is among dozens of simultaneous efforts to scale back DEI programs — to varying degrees — in state capitals and on higher education oversight boards in other Republican-led states. In at least 22 states, the legislature has enacted legislation, or public universities have set policies prohibiting or modifying DEI measures at state university systems, according to a running tally in .

Among the earliest passed was in North Dakota asking students and prospective university employees about their commitment to DEI. Florida followed last year with a that does away with diversity statements and DEI offices. Alabama in 2024 enacted a restricting public employees from being forced to agree with so-called divisive concepts, including the idea that “by virtue of an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin, the individual is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously.”

In South Dakota, the Board of Regents recently enacted a policy that bars employees at its six public universities from putting their preferred gender pronouns or tribal affiliations in email signatures, according to . Most recently, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees last month to shift $2.3 million of DEI spending toward public safety and policing on campus. Then, the entire UNC System Board of Governors to abolish DEI policies in place since 2019 at all 17 of its campuses.

A chilling effect

Many of the efforts to roll back DEI initiatives in states have the same roots as a campaign against critical race theory spearheaded by Seattle documentary filmmaker Christopher Rufo, who in 2020 elevated a once-obscure theory about the pervasiveness of racism in American law and institutions to a household term.

Often, efforts to undo DEI initiatives argue that students — especially white students — are harmed by learning about the history of racism in the United States because it may leave them feeling guilty or ashamed of their identity. Multiple states, including , have adopted near-identical language in anti-DEI legislation that bans instruction that might prompt a person to “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or another form of psychological distress solely because of the individual’s race or sex.

In April, polling by found that 77% of Republicans say they believe that “discrimination against white people is as problematic as discrimination against Black Americans.”

Anti-DEI laws have had a chilling effect on higher education wherever they’ve been enacted, said Irene Mulvey, the president of the American Association of University Professors, a nonprofit membership association of faculty and other academic professionals.

“The laws are deliberately vague so that professors have to be constantly thinking, ‘If I say this, will I be breaking the law? Will I lose my job or be arrested by the government if I say this in my classroom?’“ Mulvey said. “I mean, that’s where we are in America in 2024. These are the worries faculty have in an authoritarian society, and they have no place in a democracy.”

At the University of Texas, anti-DEI legislation led the system to eliminate 300 positions and to cut diversity training programs at multiple campuses.

The situation is similar in Florida, said Paul Ortiz, a professor of history and a union leader at the University of Florida. He’s leaving the school after 15 years for a position at Cornell University in New York. The fallout from the state’s DEI policies wasn’t the only reason he’s leaving — he got a great job offer — but it contributed to his decision, Ortiz said.

“To pretend that it’s not having an effect on the cultural and intellectual life of the state is the worst thing of all,” Ortiz said. “I’m hoping the pendulum is going to swing back.”

Students are the real losers, Mulvey said. At the University of Oklahoma, for example, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt’s executive order ending DEI programs in state offices and agencies the National Education for Women’s Leadership program. The program encourages undergraduate women to engage in politics and public policy. Since its founding in 2002, more than 650 students have attended.

Stitt told the that his executive order was about race, not the women’s leadership program, and called the backlash against his policy “political criticism.”

“What we’re seeing now is nobody’s helped when these offices are closed or programs are shut down, no one’s better off,” Mulvey said. “We’re having watered-down discussions and anodyne classes because faculty without tenure are afraid of losing their job if they say the wrong thing or if someone takes it out of context or tapes them and puts it online.”

DEI statements

DEI statements in university hiring have been one of the easiest targets nationwide, in part because there’s less support for them even among more progressive educators who support wider DEI initiatives.

Editorial boards and columnists at outlets as varied as , and the have railed against diversity statements, saying they too often result in “self-censorship and ideological policing” on college campuses. Many elite universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, have DEI statements as a requirement of employment applications. At best, critics argue, they’re boilerplate that echoes what employers want to hear, rendering them useless. At their worst, they serve as ideological litmus tests.

“We can build an inclusive environment in many ways, but compelled statements impinge on freedom of expression, and they don’t work,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in a statement to in May, confirming the university’s new approach.

But DEI statements have their defenders. Suzanne Penuel, an associate professor who teaches first-year literature and writing at the University of South Carolina Lancaster, said she witnessed how high-quality DEI statements set job candidates apart when she served on the hiring committee for a position teaching American history. Nearly all academic applicants have polished curriculum vitae, impeccable recommendations and pitch-perfect cover letters, she wrote in an op-ed in .

Their DEI statements gave them personality, Penuel said in an interview. It was easier to tell which applicants would take a student-centered approach to their work; one applicant wrote that the textbooks used in the school’s history courses ought to be free, an interpretation that the hiring committee viewed as an inclusive approach to education.

She worries that the assault on already slim DEI initiatives in South Carolina is a continuation of a trend that began with a 2021 legislative requirement that all college students be taught , and a proposed in elementary schools.

“I hope I never see the day when there is this prescribed list of texts from a narrow list of publishers, and only some topics can be discussed,” Penuel said.

In Utah, where Democrats hold just 14 of the 75 seats in the state House of Representatives, Romero fought unsuccessfully to keep the anti-DEI legislation from passing.

Her reasons for opposing the legislation were partly personal. As a first-generation college student at the University of Utah, she took advantage of what was then called the Center for Ethnic Student Affairs, an academic advising that could now be considered a DEI initiative. It was a safe place in a state where the dominant religion and culture often excludes people of color, Romero said.

Because of her association with the center, Romero landed an internship at the state legislature in 1994, leading to a career working in municipal government in Salt Lake City. And now, she serves as president of the .

“Because of that, I’m here now,” Romero said when the bill was up for debate. “What it did is it addressed the disparities. … There’s unintentional consequences when we just try to sweep things and say we’re all the same, because we’re not. There’s still a lot of things that have to change in this country for us all to be on a level playing field.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on and .

Philadelphia is known for its prominent universities like the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, Temple, St. Joseph’s, and others.

Their presence boasts a rich educational and medical landscape. While the abundance of such institutions suggests an ample availability of libraries, this is seldom the case for Philadelphia public school students.

And according to one union leader, the numbers are stark.

Across Philadelphia’s 217 public schools, there are making the ratio four to 113,000 students, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Jerry Jordan told the Capital-Star.

Without staffing – and resources – many of the city’s public school libraries are unable to run at full capacity. While teachers and volunteers are trying to make sure students have access, a number of groups around Philadelphia are also working to make a difference.

“Libraries are important for the holistic growth of children and teens in literacy, social skills, collaboration, cooperation, creativity, and more,” said Christine Caputo, chief of Youth Services and Programs at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

“Library programs are some of the first places that young children can make their own decisions,” Caputo said. “Their families bring them for storytimes and then they can choose what books they want to borrow to read at home. This is a very powerful experience for the growth of children.”

, that reading at grade level by the fourth grade sets up many students for success and encourages healthy behaviors. A student’s reading comprehension skills impact overall academic success, and ultimately the ability to go on to college.

is an early literacy movement that is supported citywide by more than 150 partner organizations, parents, volunteers, and community members. It provides resources not only to students but parents.

“Read By 4th is [one of] the many organizations in Philly doing awesome literacy work,”

Gina Pambianchi, who leads the Penn Libraries’ work with public school libraries, told the Capital-Star.

“During the pandemic, a lot of the focus was kind of switched around, from like classroom collections [to] building students’ home collections,” Pambianchi said.

Universities have been stepping up in the last 15 years as funding across Pennsylvania for public school libraries declined. Pennsylvania ranks sixth among states that have lost the most librarians since 2010.

It’s a loss that usually hits low-income schools hardest because of limited resources and hard budget decisions staff must make, Jordan said.

Temple University has been trying to offer more support for surrounding public school libraries. “Kids in relatively well-off suburban high schools have access to a whole lot more support, and sort of general resources,” Temple Dean of Libraries Joseph Lucia told the Capital-Star. “Part of this for us is about trying to do a little bit of equity work, [to] create more access to the things that make a difference when you are curious, or ambitious, intellectually or creatively.”

The university’s efforts were stymied by the pandemic.

“Part of what we would like to do is bring some of the early grade students into the library for reading story hour type experiences and then allow them to borrow materials, take them away for three weeks, and bring them back. So using our collection to give them greater access to books they may not have in their homes,” Lucia said.

A Sign of the Times

The nonprofit , was founded to provide literacy programs to young public school students and today it circulates 45,151 books per month. According to its website, WePAC “is funded entirely by private dollars and provides all of its services at no cost to schools or to the School District of Philadelphia.”

Before the pandemic, WePAC had reopened 19 public school libraries. It’s now on track to reopen 13 more, according to Pambianchi and administrators at WePAC.

Executive Director Jennifer Leith said the group receives a lot of support from retired teachers and the University of Pennsylvania. Penn Libraries, staff and students have provided technical assistance with cataloging and helped WePAC acquire new books.��

Leith described the experience as “eye-opening.”

��“The district does want teachers to have library collections in their classrooms, but the teachers have to fund that themselves. It’s been a little eye-opening. I have to say some of the things I didn’t realize about what was happening behind the walls of the schools. But a lot of expectation is put on the teachers in terms of filling their classroom with resources and tools so that they can in fact teach the kids – so hopefully that will change,” Leith said.

Like many others in the district, Leith is hoping for more fully operational, equitable public school libraries, especially after this year’s ruling finding Pennsylvania’s school funding system unconstitutional and its mandate that policymakers fix the system.

The issue isn’t limited to just Philadelphia, Leith said.

“I think it’s a sign of the times, not just the district. It begs the question if the school district does, in fact, magically become able to support a certified school librarian in each of its schools, where are those people going to come from,” Leith asked. “The larger question is can we leverage some of the people in the greater Philadelphia area who [are] studying library science and bring them into these library spaces? Ironically, Drexel’s program no longer has a track for certified school librarians because there is no need in Philadelphia, there are no jobs for them.”

Still, with the recent Commonwealth Court ruling and the need for in Philadelphia, it is unclear whether libraries and librarians will be a priority in the next few years. It was not listed in Superintendent for the district.

Said Caputo: “For communities, public libraries are about the only space remaining that is free, safe, and a place you can come and stay a while no matter who you are and what your background is.�� Libraries do not require anyone to buy anything or to be anything [other] than who they are.�� Libraries are also very important places for the success of democracy.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John Micek for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on and .

But the Mt. Pleasant university, like higher-education institutions across the country, is facing hard times. CMU’s enrollment a stunning 43% over the past decade, from 27,114 in 2012 to 15,465 last year.

Another enrollment drop is expected this fall, prompting the university to four dorms on campus. Enrollment at CMU fell 11% during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, the largest among Michigan’s 15 public universities.

Thirteen of the state’s public universities also posted enrollment declines last year from 2020. Enrollment rose to a record 50,278 students at the University of Michigan. Enrollment at Michigan State University was essentially flat.

Recent enrollment drops can be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced most universities to switch to remote instruction for much of the past two years. That resulted in many graduating high school students delaying decisions to attend community colleges and universities.

The state is bucking the national trend in declining community college enrollment. But Michigan Community College Association President Brandy Johnson attributed that almost entirely to two of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s programs targeting adults already in the workforce: and .

Those two programs, which offer two years of free community college tuition, have enrolled more than 165,000 workers.��

The decline in high school graduates attending college started long before COVID hit. The implications for Michigan, an aging state facing a shortage of talent, are dire unless the trend is reversed.

A from the Detroit Regional Chamber found there are about 220,000 jobs in metro Detroit that employers can’t fill. Automakers are struggling to find enough software engineers and other college-educated workers needed to power their transition to electric vehicles.

Jim Farley, chief executive at Ford Motor Co., building an advanced electric vehicle architecture “requires totally different talent. We don’t have that talent at Ford.”

Let that sink in for a moment.

It’s a great time to have a college degree, particularly a four-year sheepskin. A Georgetown University the median lifetime earnings of those with a bachelor’s degree were $2.8 million, 40% more than those holding an associate degree and 75% more than those with a high school diploma.

Yet too many young people are foregoing college. Experts cite a variety of reasons, including affordability, rapidly rising wages for jobs not requiring a college degree or credential and a lack of interest in higher education.

A recent Pew Research Center found that 34% of men and 25% of women who don’t have a bachelor’s degree and are not enrolled in school “just didn’t want to” go to college.

Ryan Fewins-Bliss, executive director of the Michigan College Access Network, told me parents are often at the heart of their children’s decision not to pursue higher education.

“We see it all the time in the kids we talk to, said Fewins-Bliss, whose organization works to encourage college enrollment and improve graduation rates. “Mom and dad say they can’t afford it. People on the news say you don’t need it. There’s an urban myth that you don’t have to go to college anymore.”

Parents often kill their kids’ college dreams by refusing to provide their income data required on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Much of the resistance to FAFSA comes from parents’ distrust of government and privacy concerns, Fewins-Bliss said.

Plus, a wave of anti-intellectualism has swept the country, promoted by a band of conservative governors and lawmakers, many of whom graduated from the most elite universities in the country.

Affordability remains a major issue for many, in no small measure due the steep decline in state support to colleges and universities.

In 1979, state appropriations funded 70% of the operating costs at Michigan’s 15 public universities, while tuition and fees funded the remaining 30%.

Those percentages have since flipped, Last year, 78% of the costs of a university education were paid by tuition and fees, while state appropriations paid for 22%. That’s according to House Fiscal Agency data compiled by the Michigan Association of State Universities.

Whitmer has proposed a 10% increase in university appropriations for fiscal 2023, the biggest increase in years. But the $1.63 billion she’s offering to universities is 28% less than what the state spent for universities 20 years ago, according to the Citizens Research Council of Michigan.

Fewins-Bliss said his organization is focused on getting more students and parents to fill out the FAFSA, which will likely lead to increased college enrollment, and making college more affordable.

Among its is spending federal American Rescue Plan money on scholarships for the “COVID Class” of high school graduates since 2020 who didn’t enroll in college because of the pandemic.

Support for increased college spending is likely to meet resistance from a Republican-controlled Legislature that for decades has prompted tax cuts for just about any economic ill.

But as Michigan Association of State Universities CEO Dan Hurley told me, the top priority of Michigan employers is finding talent. If they fail, Michigan’s economy will suffer greatly.

“Talent is the new currency in today’s economy,” he said. “Talent trumps tax policy every day of the week. “I’m not hearing corporate leaders beg for tax cuts. What I’m hearing is talent, talent, talent.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on and .

But early fall undergraduate enrollment suggest “no signs of recovery”, with the nation’s public universities hit hardest, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. 

Across 2- and 4-year public and private nonprofit institutions, numbers continue to decline nationwide, now 6.5 percent below pre-pandemic 2019 levels. 

And key public institutions, such as , Universities, and the , are experiencing the worst declines.

First-year enrollment at community colleges for the 2021-22 academic year is 20.9 percent behind fall 2019. Total undergraduate enrollment at community colleges is 14.1 percent behind. In contrast, 4-year private nonprofit colleges experienced a 1.2 percent drop from 2019 to 2021.

Highly selective, elite schools are the only ones to rebound, netting gains in undergrad enrollment about 1.4 percent above fall 2019 levels. 

Roughly 8.4 million students and 50 percent of higher education institutions are reflected in the National Student Clearinghouse’s report, which includes data collected through September 23. While subgroup trends may change as more institutions report, . 

Here are five key findings from the October report:

1. There are 6.5% fewer undergraduates enrolled this year than in 2019.

The declines seen last year have persisted. Overall enrollment has dropped 3.2 percent, following 2020’s 3.3 percent drop. 

Four states saw declines higher than two times this national average: California, Indiana, Mississippi and West Virginia. New Hampshire saw more gains than any other state — the outlier now has 7.9 percent more undergraduates enrolled than in 2019.

2. 22.3% fewer Black first-years are enrolled than in 2019, the biggest decline of any ethnic/racial group.

When looking at total undergraduate enrollment, beyond just first-years, there are 11 percent fewer Black students enrolled than the year prior to the pandemic.

White and Native American or Indigenous students experienced the second and third highest declines.

12.7 percent fewer Native American or Indigenous undergraduate students are enrolled overall. However there are 21 percent more Native students, and 1 percent more Latino students, enrolled at private nonprofit universities than in 2019.

3. First-year classes are 12.3% smaller than pre-pandemic levels, and at community colleges, 20.8% smaller.

Public community colleges experienced the worst declines in freshman enrollment. Compared to all other institutions, they remain the most impacted sector, with overall enrollment declining 14.1 percent since the pandemic began. Their highest drops were from Black students (33.4 percent) and students aged 21-24 (21.4 percent).

4. Undergraduate programs have lost more men (9.3%) than women (5.3%) since 2019.

These declines have not been consistent across institution types — community colleges’ first-year classes saw women’s enrollment drop almost five times the rate of men, at a total of 10 percent. 

Overall analysis from 2019 to 2021 shows more men have not enrolled in undergrad programs than women.

5. Less selective, public schools had higher declines than any other sector: 5.2% since last fall and 7.9% since the pandemic began.

More selective, private schools have been able to retain and recruit more students than their public, less selective peers. Many have also discussed some elite during the pandemic, making the institutions more wealthy. 

Public institutions’ starker declines may suggest barriers to college have been exacerbated by the pandemic, like financial and familial stressors.