Tennessee students protest decision to strip funding from Office of Diversity
$8 million is being reallocated from the Office of Diversity to the agriculture extension services
Students at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are openly protesting the decision made on March 2 by Tennessee legislation to strip the funding from the Office of Diversity.
Senate bill 1902, introduced by Senator Frank Nicely and Senator Martin Daniel, was drafted to reduce diversity funding and prohibit faculty from being involved with matters of diversity during clocked hours.
The bill was amended on March 2 to reallocate $8 million in the UT system from the Office of Diversity to the agriculture extension services. The amendment allowed for the office to be funded through current federal funding only, but the office does not receive any money from the federal level. The result was a stripping of all university funds to the Office of Diversity.
Students have been actively fighting against this bill since its appearance last fall. A student-led group called the UT Diversity Matters Coalition was formed. The coalition has held rallies on campus and in downtown Knoxville that had several hundred people in attendance.
The UT DMC has also held phone banking sessions that allowed students to call their respective legislator, organized protest sit-ins, published a list of requests to make the campus more inclusive, and started a Facebook page to keep the student body up to date with the events.
The UT DMC is not alone in this endeavor. The Student Government Association’s subcommittee Diversity Affairs has organized a photo petition that was sent to Nashville and has passed a resolution through Student Senate that formally opposed all actions supporting the bills. They are currently working on an open forum that would allow students to voice concerns pertaining to the legislation and on a petition that will be sent to all members of the university.
Even the administration opposes the state’s decision. The chancellor, Jimmy Cheek, and the president, Joe DiPietro, sent a system-wide email addressing the issue at hand. Jimmy Cheek said, “[Diversity is] an important aspect of the academic experience and our effective operations. It’s about improving access, opportunity, and engagement as we seek to prepare all of our students to live and work in a diverse global society filled with differing ideas, cultures, opinions, and approaches to life.”
Administration and students are working as one unit to show the state legislature that diversity is something the University of Tennessee believes in and advocates for. The events of protest will continue until April when the budget for the university is finalized.