Texas State Sen. Mayes Middleton (R) called for the banning of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and statements in colleges and universities in a tweet published on Feb. 12.
"Diversity, equity and inclusion departments in our universities are the opposite of academic freedom, and are a war on merit," Middleton wrote. "Our public universities are supposed to be about excellence through achievement, which is why we must ban DEI depts/statements."
Many of the state's public universities have adopted DEI offices and policies. According to an Oct. 4 Austin Journal article, the University of Texas at Austin has a "Strategic Plan for Faculty Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity (DEI)" to form a more diverse faculty lineup, and has implemented other initiatives and programs to support minority groups and create a more inclusive environment.
In 2022, Texas A&M University faced a lawsuit filed by UT-Austin professor Richard Lowery arguing that the school's DEI policy discriminates against white and Asian males. America First Legal founder and former Trump advisor Stephen Miller sent a letter to Texas A&M claiming that the school's use of DEI criteria in its job postings and hiring process violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, calling for the school to immediately halt its usage.
“America First Legal has filed a landmark class action lawsuit against Texas A&M University for its illegal and unconstitutional racial discrimination regime," Miller wrote. "Texas A&M is hiring—and excluding—professors solely due to the physical appearance of their skin or the ancestry of their family tree. This is vile and outrageous.”
The Austin Journal also reported that National Association of Scholars fellow John Sailer had accused Texas Tech University's (TTU) College of Education of using "ideological litmus tests" while hiring new faculty members. Sailer argues that the school's hiring practices are influenced by both critical race theory and social justice ideology, with faculty candidates who don't support the views allegedly being less likely to be hired. He also cites examples of job postings that explicitly call for candidates to have a commitment to social justice, claiming that the college has rejected candidates who have conservative views. Soon after Sailer's initial op-ed was published, TTU's Office of Communications and Marketing released a statement stating that they had "[withdrawn] this practice and initiated a review of hiring procedures."
In a letter signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) Chief of Staff Gardner Pate, Abbott asked state agencies to stop using DEI initiatives when hiring employees.
"As Texans, we celebrate the diversity of our state and the presence of a workforce that represents our rich culture," Pate said in the letter addressed to Texas Employees Retirement System executive director Porter Wilson. "In recent years, however, the innocuous-sounding notion of diversity, equity and inclusion has been manipulated to push policies that expressly favor some demographic groups to the detriment of others. Indeed, rather than increasing diversity in the workplace, these DEI initiatives are having the opposite effect and are being advanced in ways that proactively encourage discrimination in the workplace. Illegally adding DEI requirements as a screening tool in hiring practices or using DEI as a condition of employment leads to the exclusion and alienation of individuals from the workplace."
State Rep. Carl Tepper (R) recently filed House Bill 1006 in an effort to ban DEI offices at the state's public universities, calling related initiatives "distasteful and counterproductive to race relations."
"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," Tepper told the Austin Journal.