The University of Texas at Austin is laying off dozens of employees who previously worked in diversity, equity and inclusion roles in response to a state law that banned such programs, according to the Texas chapter of the American Association of University Professors.
“None of the staff who received pink slips are currently working in DEI-related jobs,” Brian Evans, a UT professor and interim president of the Texas chapter of the AAUP, and Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP, said in a joint statement. “These terminations clearly are intended to retaliate against employees because of their previous association with DEI.”
The layoffs came days after a conservative state legislator warned state universities to comply with the law banning DEI offices on campus, known as Senate Bill 17.
The university president cited that law in announcing via email Tuesday that UT-Austin would also close its Division of Campus and Community Engagement. At least 40 of those who were told they would be laid off used to work in that office, which supports an array of inclusion efforts, according to the advocates.
“I recognize that strong feelings have surrounded SB 17 from the beginning,” UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell wrote, adding that funding previously used for DEI will be used for teaching and research.
The job cuts are the latest repercussions in Texas higher education and in universities across the country over whether and how colleges discuss and promote diversity. Last summer, the Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action. Last month, the University of Florida eliminated its DEI staff after a similar state law passed there in 2023. At Texas A&M University, a roughly two-hour drive from Austin, a battle over diversity policies broke out in the fall over S.B. 17.
That bill, signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in June, banned DEI offices in state-funded universities and colleges after Jan. 1. In a letter to higher education leaders last week, state Sen. Brandon Creighton (R) warned that universities that do not comply could see their funding frozen. Compliance, he added, means going beyond “merely” renaming offices.
Critics of the terminations said they were carried out in response to that letter, though the university did not immediately respond to what role, if any, it played. Bledsoe said the NAACP was considering seeking intervention from a federal agency or asking research funding entities to weigh in, as well as talking with affected individuals about potential violations of their First Amendment rights. He declined to say whether the group is considering legal action but said meetings with “all the stakeholders” are taking place.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, at least 82 bills attacking DEI in higher education have been filed in more than 20 states since 2023. DEI advocates say the initiatives make campuses and workplaces more supportive and reflective of society.
State Rep. Ron Reynolds (D), chairman of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus, called on Hartzell to rescind the termination notices.
“This is yet another overreaction to SB 17’s implementation,” he said in a statement.
Proponents of the Texas law, who say DEI offices enforce ideological conformity and result in expensive bureaucracies, praised the job cuts.
“I applaud today’s action by UT,” Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) wrote on X. “It is a victory for common sense and proof that the Legislature’s actions are working.”
Some associate or assistant deans previously focused on DEI, Hartzell said, will return to full-time faculty positions, and those that were laid off can apply to existing openings. Some of the Division of Campus and Community Engagement’s programs will be folded into other departments, he added. The terminations for the most part take effect in 90 days.
University department chairs and faculty members have spent the past two days organizing and figuring out what they could do to protest the university’s decision.
Lisa Moore, chair of the Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, was told that the position of one of the department’s senior staff members would be eliminated Tuesday morning. The scale of the cuts soon became clear, she said.
Emphasizing that she was speaking in her personal capacity, Moore said the layoffs are already having a “chilling effect” on campus, as many of her peers are anxious about speaking out in public for fear that they could put a target on themselves or their departments. The employee who was notified of their layoff has preferred to stay anonymous so far, she said.
“Walking around campus, I kept seeing people wandering around like zombies, crying,” she told The Washington Post, calling the layoffs a “McCarthy-esque purge.”
She said she and other faculty members are calling on the university to release information on how many people were laid off and from which communities, as some worry that the cuts had a disproportionate impact on people of color and the LGBTQ community.
“In more than 30 years at the University of Texas, and wave after wave of reactionary assault from the legislature,” Moore said, “I’ve never felt more hopeless.”
