On Friday, the President and Board of Trustees of The University of Wyoming recommended closing its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). According to the Gillette News Record, the university’s largest funder, the Wyoming Legislature, previously slashed the school’s block grant, prohibiting it from spending those funds on the DEI office.

University President Ed Seidel stated that programs that are either required or key to UW community success will be maintained, including: “Academic freedom, research freedom, compliance with federal laws — including the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VI, VII and IX — Native American Affairs, the Shepard Symposium, the Latina Youth Conference, and others.”

He later added that the university will look for private funding for “preferential” programs deemed essential to helping students. Seidel continued in his statement, “…we are moving forward the best we can to meet the expectations of elected officials and the people of Wyoming and continue serving our students and communities.”

Additionally, the university “…will not allow units of UW to require job candidates to submit statements regarding diversity, equity and inclusion. We will not have a requirement for employees to be evaluated on components of diversity, equity and inclusion in the performance evaluation process. These actions reaffirm UW’s commitment to merit-based employment practices, including hiring and promotion.”

The revisions to hiring practices echoed changes that MIT announced last week and the University of Florida in March. Changes to remove DEI practices will also be applied to admissions, speakers, recruitment, retention, scholarships, assistantships, research programs, summer institutes and student organizations.