State Senator Angela Hill (R)
- Magnolia Tribune brings you a Bill of the Day for the 2025 Mississippi legislative session that just may pique your interest.
On Monday, just hours after being sworn into his second term, President Donald Trump (R) issued an executive order aimed at ending what he termed as “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.”
“The Biden Administration forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs, going by the name ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI), into virtually all aspects of the Federal Government, in areas ranging from airline safety to the military,” Trump’s order read.
President Trump directed that each agency, department, or commission head terminate, to the maximum extent allowed by law, all DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” offices and positions (including but not limited to “Chief Diversity Officer” positions); all “equity action plans,” “equity” actions, initiatives, or programs, “equity-related” grants or contracts; and all DEI or DEIA performance requirements for employees, contractors, or grantees.
Perhaps nowhere were the Biden Administration’s efforts related to implementing DEI seen more than in the education sector of American society, more specifically in higher education.
Impact of DEI on Mississippi universities
In Mississippi, State Auditor Shad White released a report 19 months ago showing state universities spent $23.4 million on DEI from July 2019 to June 2023.
The Auditor report noted that the self-reported expenditures from the universities revealed a wide range of spending that showed DEI spending had increased 47 percent since 2019 with nearly $11 million of state taxpayer funds going to DEI programs.
The report revealed that 70 percent of DEI spending in 2023 was spent on salaries for DEI employees.
Auditor White has since called for lawmakers to ban all taxpayer funding for DEI programs that occur in any state-funded institution.
Bill filed to ban DEI programs
Now, State Senator Angela Hill (R) has authored legislation in the 2025 session that would do just that. Her bill would prohibit state universities from establishing or maintaining DEI programs.
According to Hill’s legislation, DEI includes:
- Any effort to manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of the faculty or student body with reference to race, sex, color, or ethnicity, apart from ensuring colorblind and sex-neutral admissions and hiring in accordance with state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
- Any effort to promote differential treatment of or provide special benefits to individuals on the basis of race, color, or ethnicity.
- Any effort to promote or promulgate policies and procedures designed and/or implemented with reference to race, color, or ethnicity.
- Any effort to promote or promulgate trainings, programming, or activities designed and/or implemented with reference to race, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
- Any effort to promote as the official position of the administration, the college, the university, or any administrative unit thereof, a particular, widely contested opinion referencing unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, anti-racism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neo-pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial or sexual privilege, or any related formulation of these concepts.
Senator Hill proposes in the bill to allow the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning to redirect any funds that would otherwise have been expended on DEI offices, programs or employees to merit scholarships for lower- and middle-income students, and to reduce tuition for in-state students.
The legislation – SB 2223 – has been doubled referred to the Senate Universities and Colleges Committee as well as to the Senate Judiciary A Committee, making its path to reaching a floor vote in the chamber unlikely.
During the 2024 session, State Rep. Becky Currie (R) filed a similar bill that would have prohibited spending on DEI programs at state-supported postsecondary educational institutions. It died in the House Universities and Colleges Committee.
Restructuring DEI at Mississippi universities
Mississippi has eight public universities. As questions have increased on DEI programs at Mississippi universities, some have restructured their programs, changing the names of campus DEI offices.
For example, the University of Southern Mississippi renamed its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to the Office of Community and Belonging last summer while Mississippi State University changed theirs to the Division of Access, Opportunity and Success.
Ole Miss has also rebranded its DEI office as well, now referring to it as the Division of Access, Opportunity and Community Engagement where the Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement in housed.
Other Magnolia State universities are also shifting away from the DEI craze that came into focus under the Biden Administration. During recent budget cuts, Delta State University eliminated its unfilled DEI coordinator position.
