Alabama anti-DEI law shuts Black Student Union office, queer resource center at flagship university

[Pelican Press 0]

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Alabama anti-DEI law shuts ****** Student Union office, ****** resource center at flagship university

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — There was one major deciding factor in Cierra Gilliam’s decision about where to go to college.

When she toured the University of Alabama’s flagship campus in Tuscaloosa, her guide took her to the ****** Student Union office on the first floor of the student center. Gilliam said there were ****** students there offering resources for trips to and from the airport, as well as hair salons in Tuscaloosa that could style ****** hair, and insights about what it was like to live at a predominantly white institution.

Gilliam said that the ****** Student Union’s visible presence on campus was one of the main reasons that her parents let her go to school a nine-hour drive away in an unfamiliar state.

Last week, however, at the outset of her senior year, the ****** Student Union announced that the group would no longer have a designated place on campus, in compliance with recent statewide legislation that prohibits public universities and state agencies from allocating resources to diversity equity and inclusion programs –- often referred to as DEI.

“It feels terrible, like there is no place to go,” Gilliam said. “They ripped all the signage and things down, and there is nothing left.”

Under the bill signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in March, DEI is defined as classes, training, programs and events where attendance is based on a person’s race, ****, gender identity, ethnicity, national origin or ******* orientation.

Similar initiatives from both *********** legislatures and university school boards have taken aim at DEI on college campuses across the country.

A decades-old ****** student organization at the University of Missouri

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of explicit references to race. The

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axed its diversity and inclusion offices, letting 13 staff members go and removing appointments to the diversity office for 15 faculty members. Faculty at the

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have expressed apprehension about what recent changes to diversity policy means for curriculum and future students.

At the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, a ****** resource center called Safe Zone was also shuttered.

Safe Zone had a full-time staff position along with a number of paid positions held by students, said Alex House, the associate director of communications at the University of Alabama. Safe Zone used university funding to provide educational services and counseling to ****** students and acted as a liaison between students and the administration. Safe Zone’s full time staff position was vacant when the office was shut down, and paid student employees were given opportunities to work elsewhere, House said.

****** Student Association president Bryce Schottelkotte, 21, said that as much as she would like to replace the services that were previously offered by Safe Zone, she feels very limited as the uncompensated head of a student organization.

“I’m a senior student who is trying to get my degree and pay my rent and make my money,” Schottelkotte said. “I care very much about QSA, but I just don’t have the time or ability to focus every single thing in my day on QSA.”

Both the ****** Student Association and the ****** Student Union are still free to reserve meeting rooms on campus that are available to all student groups. But neither group will receive any designated resources from the school.

“The University will continue to provide resources and support to every member of our campus community,” House said in an emailed statement.

In July,

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campuses shuttered diversity, equity and inclusion offices— and opened new offices that did not have specific mandates including diversity.

“My administration has and will continue to value Alabama’s rich diversity, however, I refuse to allow a few bad actors on college campuses – or wherever else for that matter – to go under the acronym of DEI, using taxpayer funds, to push their ******** political movement counter to what the majority of Alabamians believe,” Ivey

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when she signed the bill in March.

Rowan Aldridge only came out as ****** in her junior year at the University of Alabama, and the Safe Zone was one of the main ways that she made friends on campus. She said that although a lot of the anti-DEI bill initially seemed only symbolic, the loss of the Safe Zone had an immediate effect on how she navigates campus.

“You don’t realize how assuring a space like that is until it’s gone,” Aldridge said, “And it doesn’t make me feel optimistic about the direction this school is going in if they’re willing to make decisions like this.”

Both the ****** Student Association and the ****** Student Union have been forced to scramble for other funding for programming, especially as the groups try to help freshman get oriented, according to their respective presidents.

****** Student Association president Schottelkotte said that the only silver lining to the bill has been the outpouring of support from advocacy groups like the local chapter of the Human Rights Council and Central Alabama Pride. At least eight outside groups have agreed to sponsor the annual Shantay UA party, an event that celebrates the school’s ****** students, according to an

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post made by the ****** Student Association.

The president of Central Alabama Pride Josh Coleman said that the decision sponsor the school’s ****** Student Association was a “no brainer.”

Central Alabama Pride “has stood in the gaps for a long time, before such departments were included on college campuses,” Coleman said.

Tuscaloosa NAACP chapter president Lisa Young said that there is a long legacy of ****** Student Unions offering essential services for ****** students on campus. She said the local NAACP chapter will help connect the ****** Student Union to local resources for fundraising in the absence of support from the school.

“In Tuscaloosa and across Alabama, organizations like BSU play a critical role in continuing the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement,” Young said.

Only 11% of the student body at the University of Alabama is ******. ****** people make up over 25% of the population statewide, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. The University of Alabama was integrated in 1963 over objections from then-Gov. George Wallace.

The president of the ****** Student Union, Jordan Stokes, said that many members of the ****** Alumni Association have reached out to offer financial and organizational support after the school revoked all funding and resources.

At the University of Alabama’s annual Get On Board fair, colorful tables lined the quad, music played, and a wide array of clubs appealed to meandering freshman with sign up sheets. Stokes and other ****** Student Union members set up the table for the group. She said that there were so many new students signing up that her system crashed.

Stokes and the rest of the ****** Student Union board members assured ****** freshmen that there would still be resources for them, despite the absence of a designated space.

“Even though we did lose our space, we want to say it does not define us. It just means that we’re going to have to work ******* as a community,” Stokes said.

“I don’t think a lot of people really understand or know how much the BSU office meant to so many students, and how many relationships formed and how many people went through the university and went on to graduate,” she said. “I don’t think the lawmakers really understand that.”

___

Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.

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is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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#Alabama #antiDEI #law #shuts #****** #Student #Union #office #****** #resource #center #flagship #university

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