Progress.

The University of Texas at Austin has sent layoff notices to an estimated 60 staff members who previously worked in diversity, equity and inclusion roles, according to the Texas NAACP and the Texas Conference of American Association of University Professors.

 

The staffing cuts come as the university works to comply with the state’s anti-DEI law, or SB17, that bans public colleges and universities from maintaining DEI offices, holding mandatory DEI training, and having departments focused on “promoting differential treatment” based on race, sex or ethnicity.

 

In a statement released Wednesday, the Texas NAACP and AAUP said impacted staff members were given a 90-day layoff notice. Forty of those employees were from the Division of Campus and Community Engagement, which will be closing, the statement said. The office was formerly called the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement before SB17 went into effect in January.

Brian Davis, a university spokesman, said he was unable to confirm the number of jobs that are being eliminated. Davis told CNN in an email that the university would not comment beyond a letter President Jay Hartzell’s released to the campus community earlier this week.

 

Hartzell said in the letter that the university is redirecting funds from DEI initiatives to “teaching and research.”

Imaging spending money on teaching and research. How progressive.