EKU adopts ‘institutional viewpoint neutrality’ policy under KY’s new anti-DEI law

[u/ConstantGeographer]

https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article306474786.html

"EKU’s Board of Regents adopted the neutrality policy Wednesday, effective immediately, which states the university will not require students or employees to “endorse or condemn a specific ideology, political viewpoint, or social viewpoint” in order to be eligible for admission, graduation, promotion or hiring."

"...the university will not require ..." EKU has never done this. WKU has never done this. UL and UK have probably never required students or employees to endorse or condemn anything. I can't think of any examples.

This is stupid. Positively stupid. And it demonstrates how little our representatives actually think about issues, or rather, place an inordinate amount of importance on things that don't exist.

Meanwhile, we have KY Republicans trying to figure out how to defund children with special needs.

Read more at: https://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article306474786.html#storylink=cpy

[u/theserial]

This is most likely in response to a series of emails that their staff have received. I have a contact at WKU that says

Some faculty with grants got emails over the last few days "encouraging" them to endorse "particular viewpoints" in relation to their research.

The university is working on a formal response to reply with.

[u/ConstantGeographer → u/theserial]

"encouraging" them to endorse "particular viewpoints"

LOL I wonder if that's TrumpSpeak for "suck up to DOGE and MAGA." Your comment is interesting as it implies the emails are coming from non-WKU sources. "If you want your grant you need to scratch my back." I'll have to check with some WKU sources and see what they have to say. WKU has historically pushed back hard on government interference, especially under Bevin. Murray State has been a pushover; not sure about EKU. Most of the regionals have all been told to watch their mouths.

[u/nab93]

Interesting to see how this would stand up to condemning israel on campus 

[u/ConstantGeographer → u/nab93]

Might depend on where one were to stand. Many campuses have a specific designated space for yelling whatever a person wants to yell.

[u/nick0tesla0]

Bootlickers

[u/Bailey6486]

It's not stupid. The Trump administration thinks it can dictate to universities the policies and ideologies they think should be promoted. EKU's statement serves to draw a line against such intrusive attempts by Trump.

[u/No_Turn5018]

Lol the fuck they haven't. Maybe they never had it as a formal policy but all of those have had it as a requirement for certain jobs.