‘Happy to be a thorn in their side on this issue’: Faculty Alliance Chair on university’s changes to DEI

The University of Alaska Board of Regents met on Feb. 20 and 21 at the Kenai Peninsula College, a satellite campus of UAA.

On the second day, the board moved to consider a motion. The text of the motion was not made public, and it wasn’t on the agenda.

Regent Seth Church read the text aloud. 

“The University of Alaska Board of Regents reaffirms its dedication to being an inclusive, nondiscriminatory institution, committed to offering equal opportunity and access for all individuals,” he said.

Church continued reading.

“That the Universities’ websites and other electronic or print material representing each university, no longer refer to ‘affirmative action,’ ‘DEI’ nor utilize the words ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ ‘inclusion,’ or other associated terms.’”

As Church listed the terms, someone gasped. 

Jenni Carroll is the Chair of the Faculty Alliance, a shared-governance body at the University of Alaska consisting of faculty across the university system.

She was present at the meeting.

“I can’t imagine that this was just completely last minute,” she said in an interview with The Northern Light.

“I think it was likely to be planned.”

She said, “We had no inkling that it was going to happen, of course, because it was not on the agenda, it was not discussed publicly. They went into executive session, and they came out and said, ‘boom,’ here we have it.”

“I had a student who was there and other people who told me afterwards they were shocked. There were tears.”

The motion passed 9-1. The sole dissenting vote was from the student regent, Albiona Selimi.

Carroll said that at the end of the meeting the Staff Alliance representative, in their closing remarks, thanked the student regent.

“When the Staff Alliance representative thanked her, the audience clapped,” she said.

Carroll talked about the board’s decision not to make this process public.

She said, “Everybody is going, ‘We have entire missions that include diversity, equity and inclusion.’”

“Usually when you create a new mission statement, vision statement, values statements, these are things that are done as a process. They include all of your stakeholders, and they usually get voted on, at least for endorsement, by governance.”

“This puts that whole process into disarray … There really was no rush on this, and they have shot themselves in the foot by doing it in this way,” said Carroll.

She said there are people at the university who have been quiet about their disagreement with the university’s prior DEI policy, but the way things were done will not help.

“You’ve got the principles that are really important, and then you’ve got some policies. And this just makes it even harder for us to have those hard conversations.”

She said she has heard from faculty since the motion was passed.

“The faculty I have heard from and the ones I’m connected to on Facebook, for example, are universally appalled … I’ve heard of people planning on decorating their doors with diversity, equity and inclusion, or utilizing those words more. Just a lot of condemnation.”

One of the biggest concerns she has heard from faculty is about academic freedom. 

Carroll said she is appreciative that the board committed to academic freedom in their motion.

She said that it's a challenging time to deal with these changes. 

“We would really like to get back to doing our jobs. We’re in the middle of the semester, we need to be focused on our teaching, our research, our students, our grading. It’s just really frustrating to be constantly chasing after these things,” she said.

“It’s just one of those things that’s sort of in the back of everyone’s mind: Can I just teach my class?”

Carroll herself is part of an Alaska Native studies and rural development program at UAF. 

She acknowledged that the board took time to recognize Alaska Native culture in their motion, but she has heard blowback from Alaska Natives. 

“I have not seen positive response. I have seen some really angry responses from Alaska Natives.”

Carroll said they could still achieve the underlying goals of DEI programs, which seek to help students from marginalized communities be successful.

“We’ve had these systems in place for decades, at this point, and nobody wants to see them go away,” she said.

“I know the faculty and staff who are involved in all this, the faculty are not going to change how they are approaching this. You don’t have to have or be allowed to have diversity, equity and inclusion as words or policies or programs to be welcoming of diversity, equity and inclusion.” 

“I have been at the university for 25 years, and we have a really pretty decent track record, from what I hear from students over the years, of providing really quality DEI support, whether it’s DEI labeled or not.”

Carroll said the motion passed by the board will put a constraint on staff’s ability to help students.

“They’re in a tough spot … the staff may not get the same kind of support to do what they know is right.”

Carroll sees that impacting the work. 

“In a sense I’m saying we can do this, because we have in the past. But it’s just so much harder, and we can’t be as effective, I don’t think.”

But the ability to do their jobs isn’t the only issue staff are facing. 

Carroll said, “Staff are already feeling the squeeze in terms of their ability to speak out.”

Students too, she said, have told her about concerns about inclusiveness, free speech and ability to do research.

Carroll said, “This whole thing seems like an attack on their place and their welcome at the university.”

At the time of the interview, Carroll said that she did not know the underlying reasons why the board decided to pass the motion. 

A week prior to the board’s vote, the U.S. Department of Education shared a letter — widely referred to as the “Dear Colleague letter” — with educational institutions across the country.

In the letter, the department laid out its interpretation of a 2023 Supreme Court decision that made race considerations in college admissions illegal. 

The Department of Education has broadly interpreted this decision as making all activities at universities that have as any race-based qualification illegal and possible grounds for termination of federal funds.

Asked about the letter, Carroll said, “It’s a threat. It’s not yet the law of the land.”

Since the interview, Board of Regents Chair Ralph Seekins, said the letter was part of the grounds for moving forward with the motion, according to an article in the Alaska Beacon. 

Seekins also pointed to the 2023 Supreme Court and Trump's executive order relating to DEI as reasons behind the board’s motion. 

A federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order the same day the board voted to approve the motion. 

Carroll said that at a certain point, both students and employees are going to be making a decision of if to stay or leave the university; if they want to be a part of this.

She said, “For right now, I’m here. I’m doing my job. I’m fighting the good fight.”

“I’m happy to be a thorn in their side on this issue.”

Since the interview, Carroll along with the other chairs of the Faculty Alliance have published an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News blasting the board’s actions.

Audio of Board of Regents meeting was made available courtesy of Jake Dye with the Peninsula Clarion.