The University of Florida is the first college to fire all diversity, equity, and inclusion employees in accordance with a new law signed by Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The university had previously dedicated $5 million to support DEI implementation but announced Friday that it would reroute that money to a faculty recruitment fund.
DeSantis celebrated the announcement from his official social media account.
“DEI is toxic and has no place in our public universities. I’m glad that Florida was the first state to eliminate DEI and I hope more states follow suit,” he tweeted.
State Democrats, on the other hand, were outraged and furious.
“I am stunned but not surprised at the elimination of DEI staff at University of Florida, my Alma Matter,” said state Rep. Yvonne Hinson. “The culture wars engaged in the Republican dominated Florida House of Representatives will continue until Floridians have had enough and develop the will and determination to flip the majority in the Florida House.”
“When will we stop with these made up culture wars that are literally costing people their livelihoods,” responded Rep. Dianne Hart. “In an effort to prevent ‘indoctrination’ in our classrooms, we have in turn created an education system that is built off lies, falsehoods, and deceptive history. We can’t call ourselves the ‘free State of Florida’ when children aren’t free to learn the truth of their history, and see the diversity of humanity.”
In July, a report accused the University of Florida of underreporting its DEI initiatives to conceal the depth of its support of radicalism on campus.
That same month, DEI experts and activists bemoaned the dwindling interest and investment into their political agenda by companies and corporations.
“2020 was the year that we were definitely making strides — but there wasn’t any strategy, there wasn’t any plan,” said business strategist Kim Crayton at the time.
One estimate found that DEI investment had skyrocketed to as much as $3.5 billion in 2020.
“It was a PR moment — corporate blackface,” she added. “I told people at the time: ‘White guilt isn’t going to last.’”
Among those companies accused of backing off of their support for DEI were Disney, Netflix, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Warner Bros. Discovery.
Here’s more about the development:
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