On January 29^th Missouri State University President, Dr. Richard “Biff” Williams, announced that the university will  be eliminating the office of inclusive engagement and canceling the Collaborative Diversity Conference and Inclusive Excellence Awards Gala.  

President Williams notified the student body through an email. In this email he says that this discontinuation comes after other steps that the university believes is providing an inclusive environment for all members of the campus community.  

Prior actions taken by the university, as are cited within the email, to ensure inclusivity for all students include no longer “requiring 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 scholarships, college/department scholarships and donor-funded scholarships”, “removing program participation requirements that limited eligibility based on race, sex and other characteristics”, and “removing old web content that described DEI activities/programs the university no longer offered as of 2023.” 

President Williams said in this email that Missouri State University’s DEI programs have been focused upon within the Missouri Legislature. President Williams’ decision to discontinue the office and other programs was in anticipation of potentially losing funding if the university does not comply with potential legislation.  

According to President Williams, MSU receives 38% of its funding from the state and will not be able to provide students with a quality education if that funding is no longer provided.  

On February 6, I conducted an interview with Drury University President, Dr. Jeff Frederick. In this interview President Frederick provided the statement released by Drury on January 31, regarding DEI.  

“Drury University is committed to fostering a sense of belonging for each and every one of our students, be they in-person, on-line, undergraduate or graduate. Our constant commitment to inclusiveness ensures every student feels welcomed, is valued for who they are, and is an active participant in our educational community. Drury will continue to monitor state and federal laws and will comply as necessary. No changes in staffing and/or programming are planned at this time.”  

President Frederick says that Drury does not intend to preemptively close any facilities, including Drury’s DEI office. However, President Frederick said that “ if the law changes and we are no longer able to allow financial aid either on the state or federal level for our students because that we have an office to support students, we’ll have to comply with the law.”  

According to President Frederick, “the funding that Drury gets is different than the funding a state institution gets.” State institutions receive a number of dollars from the state or federal governments that private institutions do not receive. President Frederick says that students are eligible for state-based aid most commonly allocated to students with special circumstances.  

Depending on the legislation that could potentially be passed Drury would be “telling Missouri students, or students from other areas, that if we did not comply with the law that they would not be able to receive the allocation.” Essentially, Drury would not be able to process state or federal financial aid awarded to students if they did not comply with potential legislation.  

President Frederick says that even if the university has to comply with legislation that “students come first.” He says that “everything that we can do to make sure that every student here feels welcome and feels comfortable going to school here are things that we will do.”  

President Frederick said that “we will do everything we can to make sure every student is as successful as possible.” 

According to President Frederick, the best way for students to show Drury that they appreciate the continuation of the DEI office and programs is to “just support each other as students. The most effective ways for students to support each other is to just be open and welcoming and caring. This is such a caring community; you can’t walk from one end of campus to the other without seeing lots of people that you know. Just continue to be Drury.” 

 President Frederick said he told members of a staff meeting, “we’re going to make sure that Drury is always Drury. And at Drury, every person matters… We’ll devise whatever special programs are allowable within the law to make sure our campus community is knit together as best as possible.” 

Bottom-line for Drury students is that Drury has no intentions of preemptively discontinuing any offices or programs related to DEI. Even if legislation mandates as such, it sounds like Drury has our backs.  

However, this does not mean that students should remain complacent. Whether you support or oppose DEI, call your representatives, attend community events, be informed, and vote on everything from schoolboard elections to the next presidential election.  

Photo courtesy of Drury University