DEI Barred in Universities, Effective Aug. 1

By Anna Kaminski, Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Kansas lawmakers killed diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, practices in all forms of state government, including universities, after slipping a provision into the state budget.

Ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline to abide by the provision, Kansas Secretary of Administration Adam Proffitt confirmed Tuesday that all state agencies, universities and contracts have eliminated positions, mandates, programs, activities, training requirements, grants and contracts related to DEI.

The Kansas Department of Administration examined around 20,000 job titles across all state agencies, searching for key terms including diversity, equity, inclusion and DEI, Proffitt said at a meeting of the State Finance Council, which included Gov. Laura Kelly and legislative leaders.

He said he is confident those positions don’t exist. If they did, the people in those positions were reassigned, he said. The department also scoured state training requirements and contracts to ensure DEI was not part of them.

“Now, I want to be crystal clear,” Proffitt said. “That’s not to say that some entities that we contract with don’t also provide DEI services, but the intent of this proviso was to ensure that those weren’t required within contracts with the state of Kansas.”

Proffitt coordinated with Blake Flanders, president of the Kansas Board of Regents, to implement the provisions, including a statewide email signature policy requiring employees to remove “gender identifying pronouns or gender ideology from email signature blocks on state employees’ email accounts and any other form of communication.”

Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, requested that Proffitt investigate Kansas State University’s diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging committee to ensure compliance with the provision. The results of that investigation are expected at the council’s next meeting.