The dim lighting and vacant offices were the first clues.

Other changes struck Nina Washington, a senior at the University of Texas, when she returned to her favorite study spot from winter break. The words “Multicultural Center” had been taken off the wall, erasing an effort begun in the late 1980s to serve historically marginalized communities on campus. The center’s staff members were gone, its student groups dissolved.

“Politics, behaviors and emotions are returning to the old ways,” said Washington, who as a Black woman found a sense of community at the center.

The void in the heart of the nearly 52,000-student campus is one of many changes rippling across college campuses in Texas, where one of the nation’s most sweeping bans on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives took effect Jan. 1.

  • SuperDuper@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    GOP-led states? My brother in Christ they want to turn their culture war bullshit into national policies.

      • coolkicks@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        This is what republicans have always done well. They organize locally, take over school boards and city councils, drive the change they want to see in local communities and drive support locally to drive voter turn out nationally.

        We don’t see democrats crashing school board and city council meetings, participating in local politics en mass to drive local change with near the same effectiveness as republicans, and it leads to underwhelming participation in national elections, as the left sits around wondering “what has the DNC done for me”.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Didn’t you all know the hierarchy? Jobs requiring higher education are for white people. Jobs involving manual labor are for everyone. Jobs in the food and service industries are for people of color.

    I thought Republicans had already made this clear.

  • gloss@discuss.tchncs.de
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    9 months ago

    Commence the brain drain as students and educators flee to schools in states that aren’t batshit insane. Which suits the Repubs fine because that’s less libruls voting the “wrong” way in the foreseeable future.

    • billwashere@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This is the part I don’t understand. I work in higher ed so it’s obvious that highly educated people see diversity as a strength and not a weakness. By definition you are weakening the core of education with this shit. Students aren’t dumb and will vote with their dollars. Not to mention the good faculty won’t stand for this kinda crap and will move. I mean as a student it is an investment in your future so why would you settle for an inferior product?