UW President Seidel decides to close ODEI

CHEYENNE — University of Wyoming President Ed Seidel recommended closing the university’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion on Friday, following a decision by the state Legislature to defund the office effective July 1.

Duties and personnel from the ODEI will be reassigned to other university entities, Seidel said, with the assistance of a new vice provost position in the Office of the Provost.

UW spokesman Chad Baldwin told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle the university doesn’t “anticipate any layoffs, but the ODEI staff positions have been eliminated.” The university has other open positions that former ODEI staff will likely be transferred to, he added.

The university will retain many of the ODEI activities, services and programs that were either legally required or considered “essential for community success,” Seidel said. Many of these student services, he added, existed long before the creation of the ODEI in 2017.

Federally required duties performed by the ODEI, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VI, VII and IX, will be reassigned to other university units. 

Other programs that were deemed as “preferential,” but also essential to students, will continue to be funded through private funding sources. Such programs include Native American Affairs, Shepard Symposium on Social Justice and Wyoming Latina Youth Conference.

The decision came a day after the UW Board of Trustees spent two hours listening to public testimony and deliberating how the university should move forward in preserving DEI-related services and programs.

Wyoming lawmakers cut $1.7 million out of the university’s block grant funding as part of their footnote to defund UW’s ODEI and discontinue all DEI-related services.

Seidel said during Thursday’s meeting this action “put pressure on the university” to adhere to the Legislature’s intent.

“I am committed to maintaining and enhancing a campus community that promotes success for all,” Seidel said Friday. “I encourage all of us to lean into this next chapter for our university. I can’t conclude my remarks without grounding us in why we are all here today.”

Reviewing merit-based practices 

Seidel also recommended on Friday to immediately cease several of the university’s hiring and evaluation processes. Job candidates will no longer be required to submit DEI statements, he said, and there will no longer be an employee evaluation requirement based on DEI components.

“These actions reaffirmed UW’s commitment to merit-based employment practices, including hiring and promotion,” Seidel said.

The UW president also provided a list of current services and practices he recommended for further review “to ensure that they promote merit and do not promote preferential treatment.”

These include the following: the university’s admissions process; DEI advisory councils, task forces and committees; hosting, inviting or sponsoring speakers; co-curricular identity-based center services; scholarship, award and assistantship programs; strategic plan 2023; student support services and some summer institutes.

“We understand these changes are difficult for some people to accept, just as there are some people who will see the changes as insufficient,” Seidel said in a Friday news release. “What I can say is that we are moving forward the best we can to meet the expectations of elected officials and the people of Wyoming, and continue serving our students and communities.”

‘An impossible position’

Seidel explained on Friday his decision was formed by months of inquiry, research and feedback. University officials heard hours of testimony from UW students, faculty and staff over the course of this process. The report from the DEI working group, which was formed by Seidel in late March, received more than 375 comments, he said. 

“I’ve heard from hundreds of voices,” Seidel said. “I can feel confident that our recommendation has taken into account many, many points of view.”

Trustee Dave True made a motion to support Seidel’s recommendation, which was passed without any opposition by the board. Trustees also adopted the DEI definition that was included in the working group’s report.

This definition was determined as any activity that advantaged or disadvantaged “individuals or groups on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, gender identity or sexual orientation, or equalized or increased outcomes as compared to other individuals or groups.”

This also included any activity, program or service likely “to promote the position that the action of a group or an individual is inherently, unconsciously or implicitly biased, privileged or inherently superior or inferior on the basis of color, sex, national origin, gender identity or sexual orientation.”

Seidel said a number of components from the DEI definition went into his decision.

Many of the board members applauded Seidel for his efforts and recognized the “impossible position” the university was put in.

“President Seidel, I just want you to know that we have all been placed in an impossible position,” said board vice chair Michelle Sullivan. “I want to acknowledge the difficult wrestling that we’re all facing with this and make a commitment…it may look structurally different, but those principles remain.”

Both Seidel and the board recognized that many of the university’s faculty, students and staff will be disappointed by this final decision. Trustee David Fall referred to the decision as “a work in progress.”

“This is not going to end today,” Fall said. “This is going to keep going on, kind of like it’s been since the university’s been here.”

The Board of Trustees will discuss the progress of implementing Seidel’s decision to close the ODEI and reviewing the university’s current practices, programs and policies at upcoming meetings.