Boise State Closes DEI Centers, Follows National Trend

by Emily Washburn | December 13, 2024 | Education

Another one bites the dust.

Boise State University quietly closed its Student Equity and Gender Equity Centers over Thanksgiving Break, students found out this week. The closure reportedly anticipates a state education resolution banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in public colleges and universities.

The Idaho State Board of Education drafted the “Resolution on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Higher Education” to “establish and maintain equality of opportunity so that all students may succeed regardless of personal identity characteristics.”

The document would prevent public colleges from:

Dedicating a central office, policy, procedure or initiative to DEI, outside those required for getting degrees, scholarships or grants.
Using “personal identity characteristics” to determine hiring or admissions decisions.
Requiring students and employees to declare their “gender identity” or “preferred pronouns” in “any form of communication.”

BSU isn’t the only school to back away from DEI in the past month. Idaho State University got rid of its Office of Equity and Inclusion on November 14, vowing to “restructure and rename” it the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX.

The University of Idaho also signaled intentions to close its Equity and Diversity Unit , including the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Women’s Center, Black and African American Cultural Center and the LGBTQ+ Office. No changes have yet been implemented.

Idaho’s declining acceptance of DEI reflects national discontent with the ideologies taught on college campuses. Once a bastion of DEI in higher education, the University of Michigan announced last week it would no longer require prospective employees to make commitments to further the school’s DEI goals.

Idaho already prevents public institutions from requiring such “diversity statements.”

DEI programs assume relationships between social identity groups are inherently oppressive. They aim to equalize social and economic disparities between social identity groups by isolating, uplifting and changing rules for “oppressed” groups.

The University of Michigan spent eight years and $250,000,000 buying into this dogma — with little to no benefit. More than half of the money went to hire DEI administrators and teachers, rather than helping students pay tuition. In a 2022 survey of students and faculty, most reported a less positive campus climate and a decreased “feeling of belonging” on campus than before DEI.

Investigative reporter Nicholas Confessore writes of the survey:

Students were less likely to interact with people of a different race or religion or with different politics—the exact kind of engagement DEI programs, in theory, are meant to foster.

Good on Idaho’s higher education system for confronting an ideology that fosters polarization rather than learning.

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