The University of Missouri announced that its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion business would be closing, a school that, nearly a decade ago, saw individuals pioneer how cultural activists can rally on campuses to impose radical policy changes in the present time.
At a press conference, University of Missouri System President Mun Choi claimed that the decision to shutter the La office is being attributed to Republican lawmakers as a preventative action to avert any new laws. Over the past two years, numerous purple state legislators have passed legislation to limit La programs at public institutions.
” We’re seeing the activities that have been taken in other state”, said Choi, even governor at Mizzou, according to the Kansas City Star. ” There were units that were eliminated, the DEI groups, and it resulted in larger employees cuts”.
We wanted to become proactive because those employees play a significant role in ensuring the success of our kids, and in our case, we did so.
Choi said officials are shifting toward a race-neutral method to diversity, equity, and participation, and” no excluding any team in the name of inclusion”, reported the Chronicle of Higher Education, which even attended the late-Friday media event.
The DEI business employees will be reassigned, he told reporters, adding that” the bottom line is that the companies that were provided for students will still be available, but they will also be accessible within the larger units that these products will then be a part of.”
But, the vice president for DEI may leave the school on Aug. 15 and the institution will no longer have that position, the Chronicle reported.
The University of Missouri System also banned mandatory diversity statements in 2023, making it no longer required for applicants to swear allegiance to DEI.
Massive student protests against claims of systemic racism took place at Mizzou in the fall of 2015.
The protesters, under the name Concerned Student 1950, made demands for more black faculty, for white leaders to resign, and other concessions. They enacted a hunger strike and staged sit-ins, which football players joined. powerful images were spread quickly thanks to social media.
The protest caused the resignations of Mizzou’s Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin and University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe at the time. Additionally, all employees and students are required to take DEI training at the University of Missouri.
Black student activists created their own lists of demands and sit-in-style protests at campuses across the country in the years that followed, drawing inspiration from Concerned Student 1950’s playbook.
But the infamous Mizzou protest also led to plummeting enrollment,  , shuttering dorms , and , massive layoffs for the university, which took a black eye over the bad press.
MORE: Parents of black hunger striker protesting’ white privilege ‘ own lakeside home worth$ 1.1 million
IMAGE: Field of Vision Concerned Student 1950 YouTube screenshot
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