photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

University of Kansas students on Sept. 17, 2024 protested a merger of several student offices related to diversity, gender, sexuality and other issues.

When it comes to issues of gender, sexuality, diversity and other such topics, there’s a new debate at the University of Kansas: Is there an evolution or an elimination underway?

KU administrators last week announced a reorganization that will bring many individual KU offices related to gender, sexuality, diversity and equality under one organizational umbrella and into shared space in the Kansas Union.

Leaders touted the reorganization as a nationally recognized best practice “to better accommodate students and their evolving needs.”

On Tuesday, though, about 20 students protested in front of the Kansas Union and argued that the university’s ultimate goal isn’t to improve the programs but rather to eliminate them. With phrases like “the first step in eradication is consolidation,” students alleged that KU leaders are trying to please conservative state lawmakers who have expressed disdain for diversity, equity and inclusion programs on campus.

“They are attempting to criminalize the word diversity,” Corrinne Yoder-Mulkey, a KU law student, said of Kansas legislators. Yoder-Mulkey told assembled protesters that KU was acting “cowardly” as it tried to align itself with those lawmakers.

KU administrators, however, haven’t linked any of the changes to direction it has received from the state. Rather, KU last week announced via a press release that it was creating a new organization called the KU Student Engagement Center. The center was created by “reallocating staff and resources” from the Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, the Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and the Student Involvement and Leadership Center.

The organizations, which all had their own offices, either have relocated or are in the process of relocating to space in the Kansas Union and the Sabatini Multicultural Resource Center. KU leaders said in the release that the reorganization will create new synergies for entities to work together on important issues.

“This exciting reimagining of our services enhances our ability to make learning possible on a greater scale and in more meaningful ways,” Tammara Durham, vice provost for student affairs, said in the press release. “This new office will provide expanded support for students of varying identities, interests, and needs.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

University of Kansas students on Sept. 17, 2024 protested a merger of several student offices related to diversity, gender, sexuality and other issues.

Adam Kellogg, a KU student who previously served as a graduate assistant in the Center for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, said he’s worried the consolidation of the organizations simply will make it easier for the university to cut the budgets of those entities in one fell swoop.

“What I see and what many others have suspected is that this combining of centers will result in severe budget cuts and a lack of resources for students,” Kellogg told the protesters.

KU administrators have said that all staff members from the various offices will continue working in their roles through the Student Engagement Center, and all fall 2024 programming that each office had planned will continue as scheduled.

KU also has hired a director for the center, and announced plans to engage students on coming up with a new name for the center and to “establish the center’s unique identity in the coming academic year.”

Jordan Brandt, the former director of KU’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, will serve as the director of the Student Engagement Center. As part of his staff, he’ll have an associate director of student impact programs and services, an associate director of student community programs, and an associate director of student leadership programs. Other staff positions include a director of family engagement programs, director of student affairs communications, and an assistant director of student senate leadership development.

The changes to the programs do come after the Kansas Legislature earlier this year engaged, at times, in a contentious debate with higher education leaders about diversity, equity and inclusion issues on campuses.

Leading conservative lawmakers had threatened to withhold tens of millions of dollars in state funding for higher education unless a new state law was approved that would limit what universities could do with diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging programs.

The law that took effect July 1 prohibits universities from requiring any student or job applicant to take a “diversity pledge.” That means the universities can’t ask prospective employees to commit to upholding certain diversity or equity principles, and generally, applicants can’t be asked to outline their views on DEIB as they are considered for jobs, scholarships or other such matters.

The law, though, does not require or direct universities to close or downsize any of their DEIB offices. A spokeswoman for KU on Tuesday told the Journal-World that actions by the Kansas Legislature did not drive KU’s decision to create the new Student Engagement Center. Rather, she said the decision aligned with best practices from a higher education organization that urges universities to reimagine facility usage and programming in order to keep up with changes in how to best serve students.

“The realignment coincides with guidance from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, which is a national organization of 15,000 professionals in higher ed,” KU spokeswoman Erinn Barcomb-Peterson told the Journal-World via email.

The national association earlier this year did release a report listing the top 10 issues that professionals in university student affairs departments had identified. Two of the top 10 did involve issues of bringing various organizations together. One said reimagining the organization structure of student affairs on university campuses was necessary to address evolving needs of the profession. Another finding was that universities should establish “greater collaboration, cross functional alignment and communication.”

The organization’s report, however, also said one of the most important issues is to use direct feedback from students to improve support systems for students. Protesters on Tuesday said they were urging the university, at a minimum, to delay the consolidation until more students can speak on the issue and until more administrators can directly address their concerns.

Several speakers said they thought the university was underestimating how members of marginalized groups felt when they heard that an office they used was now being merged with other organizations that serve different populations and different needs.

Yoder-Mulkey, who is queer and transgender, said physical spaces that were separate from other organizations were important because it helps add to the safe-space characteristic of the center.

“It is like coming home, no matter where you are,” Yoder-Mulkey said. “It is the feeling of relief when you know you won’t be misgendered. It is the comfort of being seen for who you are, genuinely and without judgement … The center was the one place I felt like I didn’t have to be on the defense.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

University of Kansas students on Sept. 17, 2024 protested a merger of several student offices related to diversity, gender, sexuality and other issues.