DEI bill passes Utah Senate, heading to governor after House concurrence

State Senate lawmakers sent an amended bill banning “discriminatory” DEI practices back to the House for a concurrence vote Thursday, setting the bill up for final passage after two weeks of extended debate and revision.

The Utah House convened for a brief floor time Thursday afternoon to place HB261 on the docket, potentially for a final vote Friday. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is expected to sign the legislation into law.

The state’s Republican supermajority passed the bill easily on Thursday with a party-line vote coming in at 23-6 in the Senate, following a 58-14 vote in the House last Friday. The bill will now head to Cox, who signaled in December his eagerness to print his signature on legislation prohibiting diversity statements and other DEI initiatives.

Senate Education Committee Chair John Johnson, R-North Ogden, told the Deseret News Wednesday, immediately following a meeting with Cox, that he had no doubt the governor would sign the bill.

The bill, titled “Equal Opportunity Initiatives,” is one of the highest profile “culture war” measures to emerge from the 2024 legislative session so far. If signed into law, it would overhaul diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public institutions in the state and replace them with resource centers open to all “high risk” individuals.

The bill aims to outlaw DEI trainings, requirements, programs and offices at public universities, schools “or any other institution of the state” that engages in what the legislation calls “prohibited discriminatory practices.”

The bill also requires public institutions to maintain neutrality on political topics, conduct trainings and surveys focused on free speech and ensure all students are able to access programs that provide student success resources.

State funding can be withheld if institutions fail to address violations of these requirements, the bill says.

It joins a spate of similar measures across the country seeking to ban DEI initiatives and reaffirm academic freedom at universities and reestablish political neutrality in state hiring and training programs. But the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden, and its defenders, including floor sponsor Sen. Keith Grover, R-Provo, have said their proposal is a conciliatory third way, not based on any model legislation, that reclaims the best goals of DEI while abandoning its divisive side effects.

Related

• Utah lawmakers say they’re creating national model for ‘positive’ DEI alternative

• Utah Democratic lawmakers respond to DEI ban, transgender bathroom bill

“The reason we’re doing this now is because it needs to happen. We need to now start providing equality of opportunity for all students,” Grover said during Wednesday’s floor debate.

Grover has said the “meat of the bill,” and the part he’s most excited about, is the funding and guidelines for each public university to create or maintain “student success centers” that will provide special resources for all “at risk” student based on their individual circumstances.

Lawmakers debate DEI bill

“Diversity, equity and inclusion” refers to policies meant to create an environment of equal opportunity in colleges, schools or in the workplace with a focus on groups that have faced historic discrimination. It can take the form of diversity statements in hiring, employee trainings and programs intended for particular identity groups.

But whereas proponents of DEI initiatives say they help to redress societal disparities and make all students or employees feel welcome, Hall and Grover have argued that DEI programs can create a chilling effect in academic institutions, often ruling out conservative viewpoints, and highlight racial divisions while showing little effect on participants’ actual sense of belonging.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and concerned community members during two public hearings, have voiced concerns over how the bill’s broad scope might affect teaching strategies, data collection, public-private partnerships, health care initiatives targeted toward specific identity groups and even the 2034 Winter Olympics.

Related

• A Utah bill that restricts DEI advances after emotional hearing

• DEI debate comes to Utah Senate amid national controversy

In an emotional speech, Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, said regardless of its details, the bill sends a hurtful message to minority communities.

“I hear a lot about this bill lifting all, but it feels like it’s erasing some and their history,” Escamilla said.

Sen. Karen Kwan, D-Murray, who said she was the first Asian American and Pacific Islander adviser at the University of Utah, was thankful for the diversity trainings she had received and said the bill would have “unintended consequences.”

“It risks dismantling essential support systems and creating a void for students who rely on these safe spaces,” Kwan said.

In response to each concern, Hall and Grover have said their bill would allow current practices to proceed in almost every instance unless they violate the bill’s restricted practices. The bill’s sponsors have worked with critics of the bill and stakeholders, including the Utah Board of Higher Education and University of Utah President Taylor Randall, to craft language that avoids unintended consequences.

Randall told the Deseret News Thursday morning that the university would wait to comment until final revisions were made. But Randall readily agreed that the process of amending the bill has been collaborative.

“I will say that the collaboration has been good,” Randall said. “The bill has changed in a variety of ways dramatically. We’ve appreciated the conversation. I think it’s built a shared understanding around the concerns of this issue but also the potential benefits that we also have for just continuing to focus on student success in a diversifying state.”

What does, and doesn’t, Utah’s DEI bill prohibit?

According to the legislative text, banned DEI practices would include maintaining any policy that:

• Promotes differential treatment in employment status or program participation based on “personal identity characteristics,” like race, sex or religion.

• Asserts in trainings or procedures that individuals with one personal identity characteristic are inherently superior, privileged, oppressed or culpable for past actions, because of their personal identity characteristics.

• Requires statements of an individual’s position on DEI initiatives, or topics like anti-racism and critical race theory, before taking action in regards to employment, admissions or state financial aid, among other things.

• Carries the title “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

The bill does not prohibit policies required under state or federal law related to discrimination or harassment, including Title VI, VII and Title IX provisions. The bill contains carve outs for grants, academic research and course material, and requirements needed to maintain eligibility for athletics, accreditation and federal programs. It also includes an exception for previous agreements entered into between the University of Utah and the Ute Indian Tribe.

No training or office will be affected by HB261 unless they violate the bill’s “prohibited discriminatory practices.” The same goes for special ed programs and student groups, Hall and Grover have said.

Related

• What the latest version of Utah’s DEI bill will — and won’t — prohibit

• Utah House passes bill to overhaul DEI in public institutions

What changes were made to the bill?

Since its introduction before the beginning of the 2024 session, HB261 has undergone several changes. The version that passed the Senate on Thursday was the fourth substitution of the text.

During the bill’s presentation to a House committee, it was updated to:

• Clarify the bill’s harmony with Title VII and Title IX federal statutes.

• Clarify that the name “diversity, equity and inclusion” falls under prohibited discriminatory practices.

• Include an exception for institutions to remain eligible for federal programs and grants.

• Include an exception for an “important governmental interest,” which was later clarified to refer to “athletic competition and athletic safety in public education or privacy.”

• Outline when the State Board of Education will review the compliance of public schools.

• Replace the governor’s oversight of state compliance with oversight from the state auditor.

• Remove redundant references to “district schools.”

During the bill’s consideration by the Senate, it was updated to:

• Clarify the bill’s harmony with Title VI federal statute.

• Clarify that inviting speakers is an encouraged strategy to “promote viewpoint diversity.”

• Clarify language around the enforcement of the statute in K-12 schools.

• Include an exception for previous agreements made between the University of Utah and the Ute Indian Tribe.

• Include an exception for private scholarships.

• Define what constitutes an “important governmental interest.”

• Add oversight from state agency directors to ensure that programs targeted toward particular demographics, including race-specific healthcare initiatives, can continue.

If signed into law, the bill will take effect on July 1, 2024.