Sean Parnell grilled by student government over university’s changes to DEI

UAA Chancellor Sean Parnell faced questions from UAA’s student government, known as USUAA, at their meeting on Friday, Feb. 28. 

USUAA asked Parnell about the recent changes to university policy regarding diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI.

‍The week before, the University of Alaska Board of Regents passed a motion directing university leadership to eliminate terms such as “diversity,” “equity” and “inclusion” from university communications and websites. 

The decision received backlash. 

‍The chairs of the Faculty Alliance wrote an opinion in the Anchorage Daily News attacking the motion, and USUAA passed a resolution at the start of the meeting opposing the motion. 

Parnell arrived moments after the resolution was read but before it passed. 

Parnell told USUAA that he would not comment on the resolution until he had a chance to read it. 

Parnell said that after the Board of Regents passed the motion, two departments and several positions at UAA had their names changed. 

The department of Student Engagement and Inclusion was renamed to Student Engagement, he said, and the Office of Equity and Compliance was renamed to the Office of Compliance and Rights.

The Board of Regents’ motion also directed university leadership to eliminate other terms associated with DEI and review programs to ensure alignment with federal guidance.

Delegate Arel Gutierrez asked Parnell about possible actions taken against other programs. 

Parnell said UAA has a narrow focus on the clearest parts of the motion:

“At the moment, the agreed upon direction is ‘let’s go with what we have clarity on,’ which are the express wording at this point. We're not at this point, moving towards … ‘other associated terms’ and all that because … that’s so ambiguous at the moment.”

Gutierrez asked if the board had given a definition to the word diversity.

Parnell said, “I think it’s heard and used differently by almost every person in this room and across the university. If you’re asking if there is a formal definition, I don’t know of one.”

Parnell said a letter shared by the Department of Education on Feb. 14, known as the “the Dear Colleague” letter, informed the board’s understanding of the term diversity.

“I can tell you from the board discussion, the primary focus was on the Department of Education Dear Colleague letter, which focused on race … The diversity discussion that was happening at the board was not entirely in that context, but in large part in the context of that letter.”

In the letter, the Department of Education threatened to cut federal funding from any educational institution that did not eliminate all race-based DEI programming and activities. 

USUAA President Eisa Chang asked about changes to language at ANSEP, the Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program. She said the program no longer has “Alaska Native” in the name.

‍According to an article in Alaska Public Media, the program recently removed references to Alaska Natives from their website. 

Parnell said, “That was not at the direction of myself or as a result of the board’s action that I know of … My belief is that ANSEP began making those changes themselves following the new administration's directions they were undertaking, with the federal grant money that was available and coming their way.”

Vice President Kaitlin Norton asked about a resolution passed several months earlier regarding menstrual products in women’s bathrooms.

Vice chancellor of administrative services, Ryan Buchholdt, was also at the meeting and took the question. 

Buchholdt said the information regarding a plan to stock menstrual products has been gathered; it just needed to be organized and presented to USUAA. 

Senator Jason Ritter asked for a timeline on when they could receive that information. 

Buchholdt said, “This last week has only been focused on responding to the board’s motion with DEI. There has been a lot of fairly critical operational meetings for this university that have been, quite frankly, pushed weeks out.”

Chang said there were several other USUAA resolutions that had been passed but had not received formal responses. 

Norton and Ritter pressed Parnell for a timeline on when responses to those resolutions could be received — including their resolution opposing the board’s DEI motion. 

Parnell said his office could get responses to all unanswered resolutions in 15 days. 

Ritter twice asked Parnell if he personally supported the decision by the board of regents. 

The second time, Parnell said, “I’m not going to answer that question because my job is to implement the board’s policy, and you cannot take my silence as consent nor as rejection.”

Parenell said he needed to remain neutral to do his job as chancellor. 

“If I take a side on this issue — with the board, contrary to the board — I lose the ability to work on behalf of about 50% of this group or 40% of that group.”

He said, “I’m creating this space so you can be the advocates you want to be on these policies … I have to maintain the integrity of this office and allow you space to be the voice of the students.”

As Parnell tried to leave the meeting, members of USUAA continued to share their perspective with him.

Senator Andi Bryant said to Parnell, “Unfortunately, the action taken thus far has felt more like an attack on the student body, and that’s why you’re seeing this visceral reaction from the student body, so I do hope you take that into consideration when reading our proposal.” 

Parnell said that he would. 

The last comment came from Ritter, who brought up the actions of other chancellors and university presidents.

He said, “The chancellor of UC Boulder came out and said that they would only change operations if and when they have to, and pushed back against it. There have been several presidents, actually, who have come out openly against this.”  

Parnell responded, before leaving, by asking, “Did they have a board that said these words are gone? Or did they say the statement in a vacuum?”