The UT System’s Division of Diversity and Engagement, which is tasked with promoting diversity, equity and inclusion across all campuses, will soon be renamed as the “Division of Access and Engagement” in an effort to better reflect the division’s mission, as well as move away from some potentially divisive terminology.

Those who work within the division are responsible for ensuring that campus environments remain inclusive and accessible for all students, faculty and staff of the university. This work is meant to promote “diversity, equity and inclusion” and is more often referred to simply as DEI. In the past, DEI has been instrumental in the uplifting of minority groups, who may otherwise lack a voice.

In a statement from the university regarding the name change, it was revealed that the UT system hopes to move towards prioritizing blanket access to higher education across the state.

“UT System President Randy Boyd has charged all campuses in the system with prioritizing access to a UT degree for Tennesseans, and to better reflect the socioeconomic demographics of our state,” the university said in a statement to the Beacon. “As part of this effort … the division will change its name to the Division of Access and Engagement. The university’s commitment to the Board of Trustees’ Diversity Statement has not changed.”

The name change will advance gradually throughout the university system and will rename the Knoxville campus’s Office of Diversity and Engagement, while also changing the titles of the DEI offices, committees and divisions within colleges and schools.

According to Guy Harrison, the newly-appointed director of DEI for the School of Journalism and Media, the move is an effort to detract attention from state politicians who have begun to take issue with discussions of diversity in recent years.

“We are in a very ultra-conservative state, and there are political actors who would completely do away with DEI, whether it’s the title or the work that we do,” Harrison said. “And this kind of protects us from them a little bit. But I wish it wasn’t necessary … we shouldn’t need to whitewash the word diversity out of things, just not to alarm certain people.”

Harrison also expressed his concerns that changing the name of DEI, while perhaps necessary, could hinder the recruitment of prospective students from historically marginalized groups.

“There are going to be students of color, queer students, first-generation immigrants and students from a vast variety of social identities or marginalized communities,” Harrison said. “They are going to want to know how the University of Tennessee is handling DEI, and if they go to our website and don’t see anything about diversity, that might raise an alarm.”

This comes more than a year after alarms began to be raised statewide surrounding discussions of race and gender on higher education campuses, due to the passing of Tennessee bill SB 2290, often referred to as the “Divisive Concepts” bill.

With vague and overly complex language, the law has effectively disseminated fear and confusion across state campuses, worrying faculty about what is and isn’t acceptable to teach in classrooms as the political landscape of the nation continues to shift.

Angela Batey, a professor, choral director and current associate dean of DEI for the College of Music, believes that the name change is representative of that fear and confusion.

“Diversity seems to have been made into a negative word,” Batey said. “And we’re trying to get away from something that may have been made divisive.”

The word “diversity” has long held negative connotations for Tennessee legislators. In 2016, a state bill was passed which temporarily outlawed the allocation of state funds for the university’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion for one year and indefinitely suspended funding for Sex Week, an event the legislature has long taken issue with.

This broke up the Office of Diversity and Inclusion into several subdivisions, routing funding through different offices and effectively eliminating several jobs. Legislators at the time cited their explicit desire to discourage the promotion of gender-neutral pronouns on campus as cause for the defunding.

UT’s Faculty Senate leadership team, which is composed of President Amber Roessner, president-elect Derek Alderman and past president Beth Schussler, said it has taken an “active interest” in the change and remains committed to continuing its history of championing access for all, even with the division under a new name.

“Supporting the Division, both morally and through continued, if not enhanced investment, at this critical time, is seen by Senate leadership as crucial to maintaining the health, mission, vision, and values of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and its commitment to access and inclusion,” the team said in a statement to the Beacon.

Faculty Senate also sees itself as a resource available to the university throughout this re-envisioning shift because of its history of lifting underrepresented voices and because of the number of faculty members in the senate who have expertise when it comes to access, equity and social disparities.

“Given that the expanded access focus promises to enhance the university’s responsibility to broaden participation and representation of a variety of social groups in higher education, we hope that the university administration will see and use the Faculty Senate as a close partner in this important re-envisioning process,” the statement reads.

The Office of the Provost told the Beacon in a statement on Wednesday that the name change will also be extended to the various DEI departments and committees within UT Knoxville’s colleges.

“To ensure alignment with the renamed division, colleges will update position titles, office names, or committee names to contain the words access or engagement,” the statement said. “Colleges’ commitment to diversity remains as strong as always.”

According to the statement, this move is meant to more accurately represent the work being done by DEI departments across campus, shifting away from words such as diversity and equity, and focusing instead on generalized “access and engagement.”

“I think (Access and Engagement) more accurately reflects what we’re doing at a university level,” Batey said. “It’s all about creating as much access as we can for anybody who wants to get an education beyond high school to get that education. It’s about equity for everybody, access for everybody and just respect for all people, no matter what they look like, sound like or believe.”

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect more recent information from the Office of the Provost about how far the change will spread. This information was unknown at the time of publication.