Texas State Rep. Carl Tepper (R-Lubbock) recently said he filed House Bill 1006, which aims to ban offices of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) because he feels public universities shouldn't push political narratives "on the taxpayer dollar."
According to The Texan, Tepper filed HB 1006 "relating to protected expression, intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity at public institutions of higher education" after he learned of the messages being delivered from such offices.
"I became familiar with the offices of DEI when my daughter was going to attend one of the university summer camps for high school kids," Tepper told the Austin Journal. "The office asked for her pronouns, and that really set us aback."
Since then, he said, he discovered that the DEI office of Texas Tech University was engaging in activities "that were, I thought, distasteful and were counterproductive to race relations." He added that the school had built a black cultural center, which he called a "student union" for black students, but he felt it was "a shame that we were self-segregating ourselves."
The Texan reported that the bill would effectively ban DEI offices at all Texas public universities. Additionally, the bill allows a person to sue an entity if a school is believed to be in violation. Tepper believes publicly-funded universities should remain politically neutral.
Tepper, a Texas Tech alumnus, said he calls the DEI office, "the office of Division, Inequity and Indoctrination," adding that he saw things on the Texas Tech DEI office website that he found "amazingly distasteful," such as "how we're all indoctrinated in white supremacy," he told the Journal.
"I couldn't believe that sort of attitude was being taught and disseminated throughout the academic institutions to young people, and I thought something should be done about that," he said.
The Texan also reported that in 2021, the Texas legislature passed a bill against critical race theory, although some are skeptical if it is actually working. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has said he's not happy with schools teaching critical race theory, and he said he plans to "eliminate it from public schools."
Tepper's bill would prevent universities from discriminating against a person based on their "immutable characteristics," and he has criticized DEI offices at other universities, telling the Daily Signal, "Departments are running amuck practicing ‘reverse racism.’"
Texas Tech's DEI Office hosted a "anti-racism" training seminar in 2021, in which attendees were separated into groups based on race, the Daily Signal reported.
The Austin Journal recently reported that Ilya Shapiro and Christopher Rufo, fellows at the Manhattan Institute, suggested that state legislators should propose legislation to eliminate DEI offices, stop mandatory diversity training, force schools to "curtail the use of diversity statements” and “end racial and other identity-based preferences," the Journal reported.