UF eliminates DEI jobs of employees working on diversity issues

The University of Florida (UF) on Friday eliminated the jobs of 13 full-time employees and ended 15 more administrative appointments for others who worked across campus on issues of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

The move was intended to comply with a new state law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who banned spending money on diversity issues at the state’s public colleges and universities. The executive branch agencies that oversee the schools had been finalizing rules for shutting down the programs since the law went into effect last summer.

“DEI is toxic and has no place in our public universities,” DeSantis said in a social media post Friday. “I’m glad that Florida was the first state to eliminate DEI and I hope more states follow suit.”

The announcement at the state’s flagship public university came in a memorandum saying the affected employees will receive 12 weeks of severance pay and will be considered priorities if they apply for different jobs on campus. The school said it will reallocate about $5 million that it previously designated for diversity programs to a faculty recruitment fund.

The eliminated jobs included the chief diversity officer, Martha McGriff, who did not immediately return a phone message. McGriff was paid about $300,000 last year. It wasn’t immediately clear whether she would retain her job as senior adviser to the university president. A UF spokeswoman declined Friday to say whether McGriff was still employed in any capacity.

McGriff’s Office had been effectively shut down for months. Last fall, her office on campus was regularly vacant and dark inside, her name plate removed. McGriff took over the job in December 2021 after the previous chief diversity officer, Antonio Farias, resigned to become vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion at the University of Colorado Denver.

Conservatives lauded Friday’s announcement. Republican U.S. Sen. Rick Scott praised the university’s president, Ben Sasse.

“Ben Sasse continues to do all the right things at UF,” Scott wrote on social media. “Every university should follow his lead.”

The Chair of the Florida Democratic Party, Nikki Fried, warned: “The impact of this will be felt for generations.”

Similar announcements were expected at other public colleges and universities across Florida.

“Abolishing DEI was my big campaign for the last year,” said Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who DeSantis appointed to the board of New College of Florida, a small liberal arts school in Sarasota. “We’ve done it in multiple states, including Florida.”

Even before the diversity office at UF closed, the number of Black students on UF’s campus fell last year to 5.7% of students — its lowest level in more than a decade and a figure that has shown regular declines year over year.

Among faculty, Black professors accounted for about 4.6% of the workforce on UF’s campus, according to the latest available figures.

The percentage of Black residents in Florida is about 17%. Under state law, UF is not permitted to consider race on admission applications.

As part of the effort to dismantle such programs at colleges and universities, the Legislature compiled a list of each state-sponsored university’s expenditures reserved for DEI programs, which amounted to $34.5 million across 12 schools, including $21 million in state funds. That was less than 0.3% of the universities’ combined expenditures.

The university’s memo was signed by the provost, J. Scott Angle; General Counsel, Amy Meyers Hass; and the vice president for human resources, Melissa Curry. It said the university “is — and will always be — unwavering in our commitment to universal human dignity.”

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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at [email protected]. You can donate to support our students here.