As more states pass laws to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion policies in public universities, a question arises:  Will Mississippi follow suit? 

Since 2023, more than 30 states across the U.S., including Mississippi, have reviewed bills that restrict DEI’s reach into state-funded universities. So far, 12 states have passed those bills, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s legislation tracker.

In the 2024 Mississippi legislative session, two bills aimed at restricting DEI policies and programs — Senate Bill 2402 and House Bill 127 — were introduced, but died in committee, never reaching the floor.

Senate Bill 2402 was held up in the Senate Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency Committee rather than moving forward to the Universities and Colleges Committee for consideration.

Senator Nicole Boyd, chair of the Universities and Colleges Committee, said while her committee did not review SB2402, they remained attentive to DEI legislation across the U.S.

“Although a bill did not come to our committee last session, we have been reviewing prior introduced legislation passed in other states on universities,” Boyd wrote in her statement to The Reflector.

State Auditor Shad White has been a vocal critic of DEI initiatives, recently taking to X, formally known as Twitter, to accuse MSU of being “deeply entrenched in radical DEI ideology.”

In a series of posts, White specifically criticized MSU Director of Public Affairs Sid Salter for allegedly misleading the public about the intensity of MSU’s DEI policies.

“I look at our universities and I see the ways they waste taxpayer resources on this liberal garbage, and it’s frustrating,” White wrote in his post on September 4. “I hope they’ll get back to educating the doctors, accountants, and engineers our economy needs and turn into economic engines to power Mississippi’s future.” 

The Reflector reached out to White but his communications director, Jacob Walters, responded that White would not be available for an interview, writing that White’s statement “speaks for itself” and that “Auditor White supports banning the use of taxpayer funds from going to pay for DEI initiatives in our public universities.”

In response to such criticisms, several Mississippi universities have rebranded or made changes to their DEI programs and policies.

In November 2023, MSU announced the rebranding of the Division of Access, Diversity and Inclusion, which changed its organizational structure and renamed it the Division of Access, Opportunity and Success. The Office of Institutional Diversity was also renamed the Office of Inclusive Excellence.

The University of Mississippi has also made changes. In August, UM announced that it would close its Division of Diversity and Community Engagement and create a Division of Access, Opportunity and Community Engagement. The announcement cited the expected enrollment cliff as evidence that the university needed to do more to promote the success of all students.

“By focusing resources to help all students be successful, this will make us a better university,” the UM announcement said.

Critic Douglas Carswell of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy speculated that the changes at UM are simply efforts to ward off a legislative ban on DEI.

“Chancellor Boyce’s move seems to me as much an attempt at deflection, as it is a serious effort to root out woke ideology,” Carswell wrote. “What the university really wants is to head off legislation that would outlaw the promotion of an ideology that is increasingly commonplace among third-rate academics in our public universities.”

White also criticized MSU for publishing research into topics such as whiteness, systematic racism, colorblind racism and white privilege.

On September 12, the dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Rick Travis, sent an email to faculty regarding the recent attacks on DEI at MSU. In his email, Travis said that he is proud of the College of Arts & Sciences’ contribution to research in areas that some wish they not pursue such as climate science, alternative energy and “profound questions that roil our society, including economic, health, and education inequalities, sources of social division in our society and related items.”

“Know that I am proud of A&S’s contributions to research in these important areas, and I will continue to support and defend your academic freedom to conduct vital research,” Travis wrote.

Travis went on to cite controversial research as an obligation to Arts & Sciences professions.

“Our professional responsibilities also include our continued pursuit of influential research that addresses core challenges in our academic disciplines while also responding to the needs of our state and community,” Travis said. “Sometimes this research will rankle others, but one of the purposes of a university is to push the edge of knowledge.”

Mississippi’s legislative efforts mirror a national legislative trend led by Florida. Florida was the first state to pass a sweeping ban on university-funded DEI programs in 2023, which led to the elimination of DEI offices at institutions like the University of Florida.

Florida’s bill took effect on July 3, 2023, after being signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in May 2023. The law bans public universities in the state from using state or federal funds to support or maintain programs that advocate for DEI or engage in “political or social activism.” 

Florida defines political or social activism as “any activity organized with a purpose of effecting or preventing change to a government policy, action, or function, or any activity intended to achieve a desired result related to social issues.” 

Mississippi House Bill 127 , as it was introduced to the House Universities and Colleges Committee, also included policies banning the support of organizations that “promote or engage in political or social activism.”

Florida’s law also bans general education core courses from including curriculum that teaches identity politics “or is based on theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political, and economic inequities.”

If a similar bill did pass in Mississippi, programs such as the Holmes Cultural Diversity Center, F.L.A.R.E and the Black Student Association could be at risk.

Additionally, any organization that seeks to protest or promote political or social change could lose its support from the university. MSU was recently ranked 10th in the nation by the national nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression for free speech on college campuses.

Mississippi legislation lacked the will to pass such a ban during this year’s legislative session. However, as more states move to pass bills restricting DEI initiatives in public universities, the future of these programs at Mississippi Universities remains uncertain.