The University of Florida (UF) announced that it is dissolving its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, firing all relevant staff on Friday. The news was circulated via email, informing the UF community that anyone associated with DEI duties would be dismissed.
University officials stated it had closed its “Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, eliminated DEI positions and administrative appointments, and halted DEI-focused contracts with outside vendors” to comply with a Florida Board of Governors regulation banning DEI expenditures at Florida’s public universities.
In a significant shift of resources, UF plans to reroute the roughly fifty million dollars previously earmarked for DEI expenses, which incorporated both salaries and outlays. The email stated that the funds would be “reallocated into a faculty recruitment fund to be ministered by the Office of the Provost.”
The Florida Board of Governors passed regulation 9.016, which bans DEI spending after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Senate Bill 266 in May 2023. The bill “prohibits a university or university direct-sport organization from expending state or federal funds, regardless of source, to promote, support, or maintain any programs or campus activities that… Advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, or promote or engage in political or social activism, as defined by rules of the State Board of Education and regulations of the Board of Governors.”
show less