Since June, WI Assembly Speaker Vos has promised no funding for needed raises for UW employees unless UW System and campuses dismantle their DEI programs and positions. The attacks leveled against the staff, faculty, and
researchers are mean-spirited. They are devoid of content
reflecting any real knowledge of this dynamic field, programs and best practices. It is lost on Speaker Vos and others that DEI initiatives, services, and scholarship have evolved overtime in response to the demands of students, parents, communities, workers, and employers. Of course, understanding the role of DEI in students’ learning and success isn’t the goal. As Wisconsin is second only to Tennessee in extremely gerrymandered electoral maps, students and many others are finding it difficult to have their voices heard.

Writing this column has been difficult. It is deeply disturbing to write about the attacks on all levels of public education. The links to the rise of extremism, the scapegoating of targeted groups, the hollowing out of democratic institutions and the obscene concentration of wealth and power are obvious. Being the director of SSP in the Department of Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies helps me to see the manifestations of these large patterns up-close-and- personal. The harm to our present and future students is real. Dedicated faculty and staff are affected. There are consequences for the misrepresentation and disdain for DEI, the scholarship and practice, the values and experiences that inform it. There is no way to dismiss this conflicted situation as merely or acceptable “politics.” A snapshot of “real college” under these conditions: I feel tears coming when talking with a student who can’t wait to have their own classroom as a teacher while letting me know how bad it was for teachers back in their home district. I hear from SSP student parents who are amazed that “someone like me” could ever attend a university, while they share their worries about keeping their car in working condition and finding childcare. I think of the students who share, with considerable relief, that they’ve finally found a place of belonging at college.