During his first weeks in office, President Donald Trump has waged war on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. But the effort to stamp out DEI on college campuses has been years in the making across state legislatures. How did DEI take hold in higher education? And what does it really mean to “ban” this kind of work? 

Related Reading:

• DEI Legislation Tracker
• Tracking Higher Ed’s Dismantling of DEI  
• A Slap in the Face: How UT-Austin Axed a DEI Division 
• Behind the Lines of Texas A&M’s Diversity War (Washington Post)

Guest: Daarel Burnette II, senior editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters. We aim to make transcripts available within a day of an episode’s publication.