Our Message to SB 17
On January 1, 2024, Texas’s anti-Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) law, SB 17, went into effect. Since then, DEI offices and initiatives on college campuses providing support to all, despite what conservatives think, have been erased.
This is a heartbreaking moment. Since March 2023, our coalition and allies have worked hard to prevent SB 17 from becoming law. For many, many of us, it was our first time grappling with the Texas legislature’s politics and procedures. We spent hours building coalitions, creating policy toolkits, visiting representatives’ offices, hosting virtual phone-ins, submitting testimony at committee hearings, and drafting amendments. Although SB 17 passed, we still bitterly celebrated having managed to soften its original language. Despite our efforts, as the law has taken effect, it's felt more like a hollow victory.
We continue to witness Texas universities’ leadership censor and silence our peers, friends, colleagues, and mentors. Student leaders struggle to fund their organizational activities and fear for the future of their communities. Staff can no longer create safe spaces for and support marginalized students. Seeing universities' excessive compliance with SB 17 and destroying, rather than preserving, spaces only reminds us that we are truly the minority in every sense of the word.
The Texas legislature continues to exclude student voices from the conversation on whether we, the people benefitting from DEI offices and spaces, should be allowed to thrive, let alone exist. Despite the emotional toll and exhausting work involved, it has consistently fallen on communities that need DEI the most to ensure its survival. However, at the end of the day, we have each other. We move forward with continued intention. We are grounded in our values of education and empowerment. We will not be silenced.
This situation is a reminder that we are still here and we are important. Texas Students for DEI will continue to serve and center our students, faculty, and staff as they navigate the challenges of this law and its implementation. There is still work to be done in helping our communities, and we will continue to step forward in facing the challenges.
