In response to the Trump administration, and the moves Governor Kehoe plans to make, Missouri State University is ending all DEI programs effective immediately.
These changes include “discontinuing limited instances where individual departments required diversity statements from job applicants, eliminating diversity hiring policies that streamlined the hiring process for diverse faculty and staff candidates, removing scholarship requirements that limited eligibility based on race, sex and other characteristics. This included institutional, college/department and donor-funded scholarships, and removing program participation requirements that limited eligibility based on race, sex and other characteristics.”
While the Office Of Inclusive Management is going away, all employees who were hired before the creation of the office will be retained, and all others will be moved to open positions across the university.
President Richard Williams explained the reasoning saying “38% of our budget comes from the state. For us to continue providing a quality education to our students, we must align with the requirements laid out by state leadership.”