Northern Kentucky University president Dr. Cady Short-Thompson told a Republican-led state legislative committee investigating DEI in postsecondary education that the university’s regional accreditation is tied to “expectations” of diversity, equity and inclusion.
Accreditation indicates that a college or university meets specific education standards and is usually necessary to compete for federal funding. Regional and national nonprofit organizations oversee accreditation in most cases.
“It’s important for us to make sure that we adhere to and comply with (those) credentials and expectations,” Short-Thompson told the Interim Joint Committee on Education during a two-hour meeting Tuesday.
Her testimony underscored a tenuous relationship between postsecondary reliance on DEI programs and a growing push among conservatives to eliminate DEI following a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down affirmative action based on race in higher ed.
Two anti-DEI bills, one sponsored in the state Senate and the other in the House, failed to pass in Frankfort during the 2024 legislative session. Another attempt to pass anti-DEI legislation is expected to surface at the state capitol in 2025.
NKU’s regional accrediting agency is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, known as SACSCOC. Short-Thompson told lawmakers the agency adheres to a DEI statement that encourages the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion in postsecondary education.
The statement reads: “Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion is an opportunity for institutions to recruit students of all backgrounds, identities and abilities; to support them, adapt teaching methods, and use technology to meet their needs and break down barriers to learning; and to successfully guide, mentor, retain, and graduate them.”
In the case of SACSCOC, adhering to expectations like those spelled out in the statement allows the university to compete for federal funding, secure student financial aid, and confer valuable postsecondary credentials, Short-Thompson told lawmakers.
“We work hard to be compliant with our regional accreditor,” she said.
NKU also has DEI requirements for outside accreditation of dozens of academic programs that cover engineering technology, education, nursing, public administration, social work and more, she said.
Where DEI does not come into play at NKU is institutionally funded scholarships, admissions, or use of diversity statements as a condition of employment, promotion or other benefits, according to Short-Thompson. NKU also does not have a bias incident report team – a service used by many universities to investigate actions potentially motivated by bias against a particular group.
By definition, Short-Thompson said DEI at the university is “diversity: variety or differences; equity: the process of ensuring freedom from bias or favoritism such that all individuals can achieve full potential and a measure of achievement, fairness, and opportunity for all in education; and inclusion: the process of improving success for all.”
“I would argue that to admit folks, we have to make sure that we support them to be successful. It’s not fair to admit folks who can’t be successful. So we try really hard to ensure their success,” Short-Thompson told the committee. The university currently has 223 student organizations and groups – including those geared toward women, men, Black, Latinx and LGBTQ+ persons, religion, athletics, profession and many more – that she said “enhance belonging and support.”
Students pay fees to support many clubs and activities on campus, she told lawmakers.
It was DEI spending by the university, though, that grabbed the attention of Rep. Emily Callaway, R-Louisville, a member of the interim committee. Callaway referenced a budget sheet, found in this document, requested by the committee that showed NKU’s actual annual spending totaling over $100k for each of the following initiatives: African American student initiatives, Latino student initiatives, LGBTQ+ student initiatives, Center for Student Inclusiveness, plus $324k for NKU’s chief diversity officer.
Similar data had been requested by the committee from the state’s other public universities to ascertain just how much public universities are spending on DEI officers, offices, programs and events, training, etc.
“You mention you want to make sure everyone feels welcome there. I see Black graduate celebrations, I see Black student welcomes, I see Black achiever, there’s African American alumni who come to participate. I see Black student unions. I don’t see white anything,” said Callaway. “How is this inclusive? And how is it promoting unity while you segregate Black, white – well, we’re assuming there are some whites who go there; we don’t know because there’s no mention of any activities for whites.”
Eighty-five percent of students at NKU are white, Short-Thompson replied. As for the hundreds of groups at NKU, she said, all students are welcome to attend any of them. She compared the specificity of the names of some of the groups to the names of state legislative caucuses to which members of the Kentucky General Assembly themselves belong.
“It’s like this organization, for example. If you think about legislative caucuses having a Black caucus, or a women’s caucus, or a sportsmen’s caucus, not everyone, I imagine, attends all of those things, but some of you may find value in them,” Short-Thompson said. “When it comes to the social and support wraparound services that we offer to make sure people see themselves there, (that is) why these different programs are offered.”
Also, on Tuesday, the committee heard testimony about DEI at Morehead State University and heard about the evolution of diversity programming in Kentucky public universities from the Council on Postsecondary Education.
The final speaker was Dr. Tim Minella, a senior fellow at the Arizona-based conservative Goldwater Institute. The institute defines itself as “the nation’s preeminent liberty organization working to defend our freedoms nationwide.” Minella asked lawmakers to consider Goldwater’s recommendation to abolish DEI “bureaucracies” and prohibit state universities from requiring any courses related to diversity, equity or inclusion for graduation.
No action was taken on the recommendations at the meeting Tuesday.
The remainder of Kentucky’s public colleges and universities are expected to testify on their DEI programs before the panel in September, according to committee co-chair Sen. Stephen West, R-Paris.
“This is the subject matter we felt was appropriate to bring at this time. There were a couple of DEI bills filed in the last session. We felt that if we were going to broach the subject, that this subject was going to be addressed again, and that we should have all the information available to us and we should have a thorough understanding of what our postsecondary institutions are doing as it pertains to DEI,” West said Tuesday, “This will be part one and our September meeting will be part two.”