{"id":23564,"date":"2024-02-07T01:38:02","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T07:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=23564"},"modified":"2024-02-07T01:38:11","modified_gmt":"2024-02-07T07:38:11","slug":"university-of-utah-president-taylor-randall-u-s-diversity-is-its-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=23564","title":{"rendered":"University of Utah President Taylor Randall: \u2018U.\u2019s diversity is its strength\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The university\u2019s core values are \u2018unchanged\u2019 after passage of DEI, trans bathroom bills, University of Utah president tells Academic Senate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

University of Utah President Taylor Randall acknowledged the state\u2019s flagship institution\u2019s \u201cpain and hurt\u201d after the passage of legislation that requires replacement of colleges\u2019 diversity, equity and inclusion offices and another regulating the use of restrooms, dressing rooms and showers in public schools and government-owned buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, these bills do not change the values of this institution,\u201d Randall told members of the Academic Senate earlier this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have always felt that the University of Utah and its diversity of people, thoughts, viewpoints is its strength. And in fact, it\u2019s the strength of what we would say a university, particularly our university, is what we think we need to expose our students to and our communities to. Our values are going to remain steadfast in this way, though, for sure, these bills are asking us to change some of the ways in which we execute our work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Utah Legislature passed HB261<\/a>, which prohibits diversity statements in job applications and trainings in government jobs that are ideological and place one race, gender or nationality above another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late December, the Utah System of Higher Education announced that public colleges and university would be phasing out DEI statements<\/a> used in hiring and \u201cis committed to navigating the complexities of these issues to ensure institutions meet their core missions, ensure equal opportunity hiring practices, and support all students,\u201d it said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The announcement came after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, during his\u00a0televised PBS press conference<\/a>\u00a0earlier in the month, said, \u201cI think it\u2019s bordering on evil that we\u2019re forcing people into a political framework before they can even apply for a job in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the legislation, DEI offices will be replaced with \u201cstudent success centers\u201d and the terms diversity, equity and inclusion will be prohibited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HB261 does not take effect until this summer, which will give the university time to study the new law and more fully understand its impact, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proponents of the bill say it will \u201clevel the playing field\u201d for all university students with assistance and support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cox, in a statement upon the bill\u2019s passage said, \u201cWe\u2019ve been concerned about some (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs and policies, particularly with hiring practices, and this bill offers a balanced solution. I\u2019m grateful to the Legislature for not following the lead of other states that simply eliminated (diversity, equity and inclusion) funding with no alternative path for students who may be struggling. Instead, this funding will be repurposed to help all Utah students succeed regardless of their background.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randall urged the faculty\u2019s assistance in assessing the effects of the DEI legislation noting an email address has been created where faculty and staff can express concerns, share information and seek answers to questions. He also vowed to conduct a town hall meeting on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have some time. It (HB261<\/a>) does not become law until July 1. So what we would like to be is thoughtful and take a little time to understand all of the ramifications before making massive organizational changes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randall said he has met with the university\u2019s central DEI offices and \u201chave assured them that their jobs are in good standing and that we will work with them particularly as we try to reorganize ourselves in ways that are consistent with this new law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Academic Senate members said they feared the legislation would have a chilling effect on academia, applying for grants and recruiting faculty and graduate students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Academic Senate member associate professor Patrick Panos, who teaches in the College Of Social Work, said HB261 \u201cbasically outlaws each one of our accreditation standards. Now I know that the bill says that it doesn\u2019t affect accreditation, but you have a bunch of faculty panicking. This is the only thing I can say because this is our research. This is what we teach. This is what we stand for. We\u2019re not getting a lot of guidance from the university over what this means.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randall responded: \u201cWe\u2019re committed to get into the weeds with your college to try to provide some guidance. Again, the bill does not take effect until July 1 so we\u2019ve got some time to thoughtfully think through this and use the window that this bill gives us to try to figure out the specific issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some faculty have interpreted HB261 to mean they should not use the words diversity and inclusiveness in their writing and other applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randall said he, other top administrators and legal counsel continue to review the impacts of the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we can\u2019t have is an office titled Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. I don\u2019t think this law was intended to keep people from talking about these issues. In fact, just the opposite. My sense in the discussions with our legislators is they do want to create an environment where everyone can thrive and so I think talking about these things is actually important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Academic Senate member Patrick Tripeny, a professor in the School Of Architecture, said he was disappointed the university and administration did not take a firmer stand against HB261<\/a>. Cox has signed it and HB257<\/a> into law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we needed to say from the very beginning that the University of Utah believes in DEI, we believe in our offices of DEI. It\u2019s a part of who we are and what we do and we\u2019re completely and absolutely against a bill that outlaws it. I think we missed it and I\u2019m very disappointed about that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randall said he appreciated Tripeny\u2019s strong feelings on the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were engaged at every step defending what we felt are consistent with your beliefs and the beliefs of the faculty. We certainly worked hard to try to get a compromise that would allow us to continue to hold our value of being an inclusive and diverse institution, which is important to us, and we\u2019re certainly committed to that. I\u2019m sorry if you did not feel that we were strong enough in our defense, but we did spend many hours working this bill in a variety of circumstances and voicing our opinion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With respect to HB257<\/a>, which requires transgender people to use a public restroom or locker room consistent with their sex designated at birth, unless they\u2019ve fully transitioned, will require \u201cintense legal analysis,\u201d Randall said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a difficult bill for our campus and our community particularly in trying to welcome all individuals to our campus,\u201d he said, noting the legislation does not take effect until May 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randall called on the campus \u201cto express some compassion and patience … just frankly showing love to individuals is going to be critical as we move forward here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill adds more unisex spaces in new public facilities and retrofits old ones as remodels happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are currently 80-plus, single-stall, all-gender restrooms on campus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

deseret<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The university\u2019s core values are \u2018unchanged\u2019 after passage of DEI, trans bathroom bills, University of Utah president tells Academic Senate. University of Utah President Taylor Randall acknowledged the state\u2019s flagship institution\u2019s \u201cpain and hurt\u201d after the passage of legislation that requires replacement of colleges\u2019 diversity, equity and inclusion offices and another regulating the use of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23565,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5781],"tags":[8589,1205,26447,25217,1395,26291],"class_list":["post-23564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-act","tag-president","tag-taylor-randall","tag-toilet","tag-transgender","tag-university-of-utah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23566,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23564\/revisions\/23566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}