To be fair, administrative divisions like this one are driving up tuition.

Inside Higher Ed reports.

Defunding Diversity

On Thursday, both the Tennessee House of Representatives and Senate passed a bill to cut the entire $436,000 state appropriation for an office at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville that promotes diversity at the state’s flagship university.

Republican legislators in both houses have for months been criticizing the diversity office, which students have been rallying to support. On Tuesday, hundreds of students walked out of class to protest the bill, and many of the students sat on university walkways to block movement. Many students who marched in the protest said that a Confederate flag hanging outside a dormitory window they passed (above) offered a perfect illustration of why the university needs the diversity office.

More protests are being planned for this weekend.

It remains unclear whether Governor Bill Haslam, a Republican, will sign the bill. A spokeswoman said via email Thursday night only that he would review the legislation before taking any action.

The legislation that passed was in some ways less severe than earlier versions of the bill. The version that passed would bar state spending on the office only in the coming budget year, while some earlier versions of the bill would have created a permanent ban. The version that passed would shift the funds to minority scholarships for engineering students. The original version would have spent $100,000 of the funds to pay for decals saying “In God We Trust” to be used on law enforcement vehicles.


 
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