The state senate voted on a bill Wednesday overwhelmingly approving the redirection of funds for UT’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion. The measure, approved 28-4, seeks to redirect $436,700 originally intended for that office to go towards scholarships for minority students seeking engineering degrees.
The bill would also bar the university from using state funds to fund the annual events comprising Sex Week, the promotion of gender neutral pronouns or “to promote or inhibit the celebration of religious holidays.”
The House approved a similar bill Monday that seeks to use $100,000 of the total sum of diversity funding to go towards a “In God We Trust” decal program for state law enforcement vehicles. State senators have previously hinted they would not support a final law that diverted money to such a decal program.
Lawmakers will have to eliminate the differences between their bills before the measure can become law.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Todd Gardenhire, argued that using funds to recruit minority students would be a more effective method of improving diversity on UT’s campus.
Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, was only one of four Tennessee senators who voted against the measure, citing a letter from one of his constituents outlining what they believed to be the poor state of diversity at UT.
“I believe that we are going to be sending a message that’s much louder and much more negative than the one that we intend,” Yarbro said.
Also in support of the bill, Sen. Joey Hensley said the measure was not about race but rather about making sure no state funding would be used to promote the use of gender neutral pronouns or holiday inclusivity posts.
“This bill is not about race,” Hensley said. “It’s actually helping minority students get scholarships.”
Sen. Frank Niceley, a 1969 graduate of UT, argued that the only effective means of increasing diversity at the university lies in cutting costs for overly expensive programs.
“That’s done more to hurt diversity than anything,” Niceley said of rising tuition costs for UT, which have risen over the past two decades from $2,200 to more than $12,000. “Get the price down to where people an afford it.”
The action comes one day after UT students and members of the UT Diversity Matters coalition held a protest on Tennessee’s campus criticizing the lawmakers’ actions.
