“It makes me feel cheated.”

Source: Kim Horner, “UT Dallas, Students Take Pride in New LGBTQ+ Ranking for Campus,” UT Dallas News Center, Jun. 29, 2022 (accessed June 16, 2024).

Editor’s Note: This is part of our series on highlighting impacted voices from Texas universities who testified before the Texas Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education on May 14, 2024 on how SB 17 has impacted their lives.

Good afternoon, my name is Tanvi Panda, and I am a gay international student from Irving, Texas who is concerned about the recent changes made to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and practices in Texas public higher education institutions. I worry my education and that of my peers has suffered and will continue to suffer because opportunities for student success, which complied with SB 17, have been eliminated with swift action out of fear of retaliation from our own lawmakers. 

I have grown up in Texas almost all my life, but I am, in the eyes of the law, an Australian national as well as an overseas citizen of India. Because of this, I am currently enrolled in the Natural Sciences and Mathematics department at the University of Texas at Dallas as an international student studying Biochemistry, but my family’s residence is in Irving, Texas under the zip code 75062. That is Senate District 16, which is represented by Senator Nathan Johnson. 

Much of the University of Texas at Dallas’s advertising revolved around the campus’s diversity, both due to its large number of international students as well as its ranking as the best school for LGBTQ+ students in Texas. This was a significant portion of what was told to us as prospective students when we first toured the school; in fact, as someone who was unsure if I'd even be comfortable staying in-state for university, I’d say that it was a huge determining factor in accepting my application to this school, because I feared being ostracized as a gay woman of color entering a STEM field. The cultural centers and the events they organized helped me significantly with connecting to the campus and my fellow students. On top of that, many of my fellow queer students and my fellow international students took advantage of the spaces provided to us to connect and foster a community, which has shockingly helped me network as well. The introduction of SB17 has stripped our campus of these resources, preventing me from being able to engage with my fellow students to the extent I was used to. Furthermore, it makes me feel cheated, as my campus experience was sold to me on the basis that there would be school-organized spaces dedicated to welcoming diversity and honoring my cultural backgrounds.

Everyone in Texas deserves access to affordable, quality higher education. Part of that mission must include DEI initiatives and practices, which help facilitate meaningful learning environments to equip students like me with the academic, social, and emotional skills we need to navigate the world beyond higher education. 

I believe it is better for SB 17 to be completely reversed, as the vagueness of its wording has created much confusion and uncertainty about the state of our school’s student centers. Many of the workers have been unfairly dismissed and our cultural center's student lounges have been in a state of limbo for months. The new law is unclear, and it's causing universities to go above and beyond despite not breaking any rules. 

Let's concentrate on making sure students can access inclusive education, have special graduation ceremonies, keep getting financial help, and ensure our teachers feel secure in their jobs. We have some of the top universities in the nation, staffed by excellent teachers, and overcompliance is threatening their jobs, campus communities, and our education. We must protect higher education and keep it a place of freedom for everyone.

It’s time to keep the promise of a bright future for our educators, just as much as the children they serve.

Thank you for reading my testimony and considering it. I hope that you all take my words into account and decide what is best for making our higher education the highest quality it can be.