photo by: John Hanna/Associated Press

This photo from Friday, April 12, 2024, shows the sign above the door to the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging inside the main administration building on the main University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, Kan. Republican lawmakers across the U.S. are seeking to restrict diversity initiatives on colleges campuses, arguing that they enforce a liberal orthodoxy.

Professors at the University of Kansas now have a definition to determin whether their classroom content is crossing into the territory of diversity, equity and inclusion-related content, which soon will face new scrutiny.

Now, KU leaders are hoping the definition approved by the Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday is specific enough.

“Anything ambiguous is pretty challenging,” KU Chancellor Doug Girod said Wednesday. “If it is widely open for interpretation, it is pretty hard for faculty to understand what is allowed and what is not, and I don’t think that is fair.”

Chief academic officers from the state’s universities did ask for a change in the definition that they argued would provide more clarity to what type of DEI discussions are allowed in classrooms, but Regents ultimately did not adopt the proposed change.

The policy and its definitions are a requirement of the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature, which during its last session attached a provision to the state budget that says the state’s universities must have a DEI-CRT policy in place in order to receive their full amount of state funding for the next school year.

The creation of a policy is a first step in ensuring that the state’s universities are not requiring any student to take classes with DEI-CRT-related content. Universities could continue to offer classes with DEI-CRT-related content, but those classes could not be a requirement to receive a degree, except in very limited instances.

The budget proviso approved by legislators requires the Kansas Board of Regents to adopt a policy and set of definitions in advance of the 2026-2027 school year. It then requires universities to certify that their degree programs don’t require any DEI-CRT-related classes ahead of the 2027-2028 school years.

The policy that was unanimously approved by the Regents on Wednesday addresses several points. Among them are:

• DEI related contents means “content that intentionally establishes and promotes the preferential treatment of groups based on race, color, gender, ethnicity or national origin.”

• Content that is related to Critical Race Theory is defined as “content that presents racism as systemic within laws, policies or institutions and promotes acceptance of that viewpoint rather than presenting it as a subject of scholarly, historical or legal study.”

• The policy specifically states that “discussions of race, racism or the history of the civil rights movement do not constitute” DEI or Critical Race Theory-related content.

On Wednesday, the Regents heard a recommendation from the Regent’s System Council of Chief Academic Officers to change the definitions. The group, which is comprised of provosts and other academic leaders at universities and community colleges, specifically asked that the word “promotes” be removed from both the DEI and Critical Race Theory definitions. The group recommended that the word “promotes” be replaced with the word “required.” The group argued that what constitutes promoting a particular viewpoint is highly subjective, while “requiring” the acceptance of a viewpoint is easier to spot.

Girod told the Regents during their meeting that he shared some of those same concerns that were brought forward by the academic officers. The Regents, however, said they were comfortable with the definitions as written.

Regent Peter Johnston said the inclusion of the policy language that says discussions of race, racism and the history of the civil rights movement can’t be considered to be DEI-related content for the purposes of this policy.

“From my seat in the bleachers and from my experience and training, that is not vague and that is not ambiguous,” said Johnston, who is an attorney. “That should be a comfort to our clinicians.

Johnston also said it was important to remember that the policy does not strictly prohibit a university from offering classes that have DEI-related content. Rather, the state budget proviso says university’s can’t have DEI-related content in in classes that a required for a degree. However, Johnston noted that the law provides for a process for a waiver that would allow for required class to have DEI-related content. The decision of whether to grant such a waiver rests with the Board of Regents, he said.