KY bills ending DEI in public colleges, stirring uncertainty about tenure's future become law
A small group holds a mock funeral for university education on the steps of the Capitol Thursday morning to protest two bills that received final approval from the legislature Thursday evening. (Kentucky Lantern photo by McKenna Horsley)
FRANKFORT — With a veto-proof supermajority, Republican lawmakers overturned Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear's vetoes on two notable higher education bills Thursday.
House Bill 4 eliminates diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives (DEI) at Kentucky's public universities and was at the center of heated debates in the General Assembly this session.
Some Kentucky professors have warned that House Bill 424 erodes academic tenure at the state's public universities and colleges, although its sponsor has said it is about employment contracts at universities.
The House and Senate quickly gave both final passage by largely party-line votes.
In his veto messages on the bills, Beshear argued they could both hinder higher education in Kentucky.
Some advocates agreed with him. Four people — college students Jillian Gabhart, Savannah Dowell and Alice Harkins and Eastern Kentucky University lecturer Carl Root — read eulogies for university education on the steps of the Capitol Thursday morning. Dressed in black, they held a funeral as lawmakers convened for business.
'We may have lost a battle here in Frankfort, and we should absolutely mourn what we've lost here today,' Root said. 'But we must also organize, agitate, educate and fight back against those who would use all the power of government in attempts to force uniformity, inequity and exclusion on all our universities, classrooms and curriculum.'
Some House Democrats met with the funeral-goers outside.
When HB 424 was called to the floor, Rep. Adrielle Camuel, D-Lexington, said she feared passing the bill would upend recruiting faculty to the state's public universities. She added that protecting tenure gives faculty 'the ability to explore complex, and sometimes controversial topics.'
'Tenure protects the core mission of higher education,' she said. It is the fearless pursuit of knowledge and critical thinking.'
Democrats in the Senate raised similar concerns in their chamber. Sen. Cassie Chambers Armstrong, D-Louisville, and a law professor at the University of Louisville, said HB 424 has produced 'confusion and fear' among facultyi. She said she was supportive of Beshear's reasoning for the veto, adding that 'these sorts of policies that take away faculty self-governance' and 'put in place these programs with no guardrails' undermine the security tenure establishes.
Meanwhile, Republicans easily had the votes to enact their policies. Rep. Vanessa Grossl, R-Georgetown, said she supported the veto override of HB 4 because she believes 'in equality' and 'equal opportunity.'
'Our greatest divide as a commonwealth and as a nation is not based in race, but is rural and urban,' she said. 'I'm voting no today because DEI on our college campuses is not helping poor kids in Kentucky who are seeking to further their educational goals, regardless of their immutable characteristics.'
In speaking in support of HBl 4, Sen. Donald Douglas, R-Nicholasville, looked back to the Civil Rights Movement and said activist Martin Luther King Jr. 'gave us a great start and what happened?' Douglas then asked, 'Should we continue to blame others and hold others accountable for our own personal decisions?'
'This legislation is only a message to those who are unwilling or unable to love others deep enough to allow them to seek their own way or their own level of success,' the senator said. 'We have to love them.'
The Kentucky bills are reflective of actions Republicans have taken elsewhere to exert their influence over higher education. On the issue of tenure, Florida recently passed a law requiring post-tenure reviews of professors at public universities and termination should they fail them. This year, a Nebraska Republican lawmaker introduced a bill that would replace academic tenure with annual performance evaluations of faculty members.
Though an anti-DEI bill failed to pass in Kentucky last year, the passage of the current law comes as Republican President Donald Trump has made DEI a target of his administration. In addition to issuing an executive order aimed at curbing DEI in the private sector early on in his second term, Trump is facing a lawsuit from fired federal workers who were tasked with implementing DEI policies.
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