Ron DeSantis: DEI Has No Place in Our Public Institutions

DeSantis: “The first bill that I’ll be signing is SB-266. And what this does is reorient our universities back to their traditional mission. And part of that traditional mission is to treat people as individuals, not to try to divvy them up based on any type of superficial characteristics. We’re going to elevate merit and achievement above identification with certain groups. And in order to do that, we had to look at this new concept, relatively new concept, called diversity, equity and inclusion. And I didn’t know much — I mean, this is something relatively recent. I mean, Chris Rufo can talk about when this really started to percolate. I think it had probably been there a few years ago, but then kind of the post BLM rioting, and the George Floyd summer 2020, I think you saw it really take off. And on its face, I mean, I see — when I see diversity, I think like, you know, different viewpoints, have a robust academic discussion in the university. Isn’t that what they’re for? In reality, what this concept of the DEI has been, its attempt to impose orthodoxy on the university, and not even necessarily in the classroom, but through the administrative apparatus of the university itself. And that manifests itself in a number of different ways. But this has basically been used as a veneer to impose an ideological agenda. And that is wrong. And in fact, if you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI is — is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion and indoctrination. And that has no place in our public institutions."