How much do SC colleges spend on diversity, inclusion? Some legislators want to know
Public colleges and universities in South Carolina are being questioned by some legislators about the schools’ spending on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, an issue being raised by conservatives in several states.
Last week, the S.C. Commission on Higher Education received an email requesting the information from the state House of Representatives, CHE spokesman Mark Swart said, though it is unclear which members of the House.
Lawmakers can routinely make requests of this kind through the director of research at the Clerk’s Office, which is nonpartisan.
The request, which was obtained by The State, asks schools to provide the total cost of salaries and operations associated with diversity, equity and inclusion. The inquiry says the request is being made “on behalf of certain members of the House,” who are not identified, and specifically notes in the first paragraph that it is not being requested by the House Ways and Means Committee, the House’s primary budget-writing and spending committee.
The email asks for any policy, procedure, program, training or activity that references race, color, ethnicity, gender identity or sexual orientation. It also includes efforts related to concepts like social justice, intersectionality and gender theory, among others, which the request called “widely contested.”
Jeff Stensland, a University of South Carolina spokesman, confirmed that the university received the request Feb. 8. He said the university is working on a response. Clemson University’s spokesman could not be reached for comment.
South Carolina’s 33 public colleges and universities must respond to the inquiry by Feb. 23.
Similar requests are becoming something of a trend among conservative states. Politicians in Florida and Oklahoma have also probed universities about DEI spending.
In late December, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis asked all schools in the Florida College System and the State University System to list the staff, programs and campus activities related to DEI and critical race theory and their associated costs.
Analysis of the data provided found that DEI spending in four-year institutions in Florida accounted for less than 1% of their overall budgets, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s secretary of education, also asked in late January that the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education to report DEI staff and spending from the past 10 years.
