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OU community members express support for campus DEI programs following state spending log request

Oklahoma State Capitol building

The outside of the Oklahoma state Capitol rotunda. 

 Peggy Dodd/OU Daily

Student leaders at OU called diversity, inclusion and equity programs essential as a complete spending log of higher education DEI programs is due to Ryan Walters, Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction, Wednesday. 

On Jan. 24th, Walters released a letter to Chancellor Allison Garrett, chief executive officer for the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education, requesting a complete DEI spending log from public universities.

The goal of the request is to find the “extent of indoctrination within higher education,” according to spokesperson Matt Langston. 

DEI programs on OU’s campus include the Gender and Equality Center and Diversity Enrichment Programs.

According to OU’s Admissions and Recruitment website, DEI programs aim to support ethnic minority students across campus. This includes aid and support through internships, clubs and scholarships. 

“The university is working to provide information as appropriate to the State Regents,” an OU spokesperson wrote in an email to OU Daily.

In a Twitter post, Quan Phan, GEC LGBTQ+ program coordinator, called Walters’ request for DEI spending reports frustrating. 

OU Student Government Association President and Vice President Christopher Firch and Emelie Schultz expressed the importance of DEI efforts on campus and urged the OU Board of Regents to prevent DEI programs from being defunded.  

“The impact of DEI efforts on the OU campus and our student body is essential. … DEI initiatives and programs (are) now woven into our University,” Firch and Schultz wrote in an email to OU Daily. 

Both SGA officers wrote that DEI efforts are something their cabinet strongly supports and encourages. 

“I acknowledge there is room (for) additional growth and learning opportunities in the sphere of DEI programs, (and) the Firch-Schultz Administration will work diligently to … push inclusive and equitable initiatives for all students, not just some,” Firch and Schultz wrote. 

This story was edited by Alexia Aston, Karoline Leonard and Jazz Wolfe. Teegan Smith and Nikkie Aisha copy edited this story.

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