TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The deadline for state colleges and universities to submit information about Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) studies to House Speaker Paul Renner's office is Monday. The Florida House speaker sent a memo to the schools last month, requesting detailed information regarding the employees who help administer DEI.
The memo from Renner instructs colleges and universities to detail things like position, salary and email communications from within DEI offices. Spectrum News spoke with Renner in January, not long after the note was sent out.
"I want to see exactly what’s happening. Are they curtailing academic thought? Free thought on campus?” he explained.
The move comes after Gov. Ron DeSantis requested information, and after the “Stop Woke” legislation banned the teaching of critical race theory and similar curriculum. Some educators reacted then with concern and disappointment.
"It demeans Black educators," said Ashley Foxworth, with The Educational Equalizers, LLC. "It gives us the fear of job loss if we say the wrong thing or present the wrong thing in our courses and it keeps us in a state of fear."
It's unclear whether there will be any consequences or withholding of state funding for failure to comply with Renner's request.
"We need to be very, very careful to support 'good' diversity, if you will, and not allow some kind of ideological agenda to creep in under a banner that we all agree on, you know, in terms of diversity," he said.
USF President Rhea Law released a statement that said, in part:
"We recognize that there has been significant media coverage recently regarding higher education policies in Florida, including elected officials requesting information from all state universities and colleges. While some initial proposals have been shared and reported in the media, we do not know the details of what the actual legislation will contain.
"Given the uncertainty surrounding any laws or regulations that may eventually come from these requests and proposals, there are too many unknowns to proceed with our current search. As such, our search committee has decided to pause the search (for a vice president) and reassess our next steps."
Read the full statement by clicking here.
USF graduate Diego Dulanto said, "The entire multi-cultural community is feeling these echos of distress.”
“Me being a DACA recipient," he said, "I am always feeling distressed and anxious about what the government is doing. And so seeing other students, who have citizenship, who have rights they are feeling the same kind of anxiety, and turmoil, that I feel on a daily basis.”