DEI Testimonial: Guadalupe Cantu
My name is Guadalupe Cantu. As a first-generation, Latina, low-income, graduate student. I’ve experienced first-hand how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs are incredibly important in keeping Texas schools competitive nationally and globally, rectifying the racial history of our institution and state, and ensuring that students of all backgrounds are able to succeed. If it had not been for a state-funded DEI program like our beloved DEI program at the LBJ School for Public Affairs, I would not have been as well supported to be successful in my time in graduate school.
The elimination of DEI programs will signal to future students from underrepresented backgrounds that Texas and its universities are not invested in our educational success.
Without the ability to ensure equity and inclusion are embedded within educational institutions, faculty would be unable to apply for federal grants. The University of Texas at Austin alone received several millions of dollars in federal grants that help support faculty, staff, and students. Research proposals sent to federal funders such as the National Science Foundation are evaluated in part based on their DEI component.
DEI frameworks would create more opportunities for all. It helps prepare students to function more fully in a diverse society. Furthermore, research shows that even with existing DEI efforts students from underrepresented backgrounds experience mental distress from the weight of discrimination and have fewer opportunities to pursue higher education.
DEI efforts do not ‘resemble practices of cult initiation’. DEI framework functions to promote fair treatment within institutions. This is especially important across higher education institutions which historically have failed to serve underrated communities including veterans, people with disabilities, racial and ethnic minorities, women, first-generation college students, working-class people, and immigrants. Eliminating DEI will have multi-faceted financial, legal, educational, and discriminatory consequences.
