The University of Alaska Southeast is beginning to implement the UA Board of Regents’ Feb. 21 decision to remove diversity, equity, inclusion, and similar terms from UA websites and printed materials.
The motion prompted a swift response from students and faculty across the system. Students began to express their concerns to the UAS Whalesong, the university’s student newspaper, on Saturday.
Skaydu.û Jules, a senior in Indigenous studies, said she will graduate this spring and will no longer pursue a master’s degree through UAS because of the BOR decision. She said she is from Canada and Tlingit.
“I’m really taken aback,” she said. “I came here to go to an Indigenous Studies program because I thought this was a really equitable, diverse campus. Now they’re taking away all equitable and diverse vernacular on the website which is really disheartening because this is on Indigenous land. This is Áak’w Kwáan Ani, and for them to not acknowledge diverse and equitable vocabulary on the website is another way of erasure.”
Jules said she can see why the BOR values keeping about 50% of their federal funding — which was under threat by President Donald Trump if the DEI language remained — but added that UAS is a minority-serving institution.
A poster designed by Chloey Cavanaugh, an Indigenous and queer Juneau business owner, is found around campus with the words “all are welcome here.” (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Alyson Kenney, a senior in Environmental Resources, said inclusion is the root of the university’s values.
“How are we going to move forward?” she asked. “It brings up the question of safety.”
The U.S. Department of Education website states the DOE has “taken action to eliminate harmful Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, including references to them in public-facing communication channels and its associated workforce” and these actions “are the first step in reorienting the agency toward prioritizing meaningful learning ahead of divisive ideology in our schools.”
Kenney said she is concerned about what could come next. Many students are in the LGBTQ+ community at UAS. Professors ask for pronouns at the beginning of class. Pride flags are found around campus. She said she is also concerned that future funding threats could come from the Trump administration that target her program, which includes research on climate change, another topic the administration is trying to eradicate.
On Friday, a week after the decision, the two key modifications made to comply with the BOR motion are to the Office of Equity and Compliance, and to the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Cultural Safety.
The Office of Equity has decided to rename itself the Office of Rights, Compliance and Accountability to align with the office at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. According to UAS Chancellor Aparna Dileep-Nageswaran Palmer, the DEICS leadership requested their web page be taken down so they could decide what to do at an upcoming retreat.
A screenshot from the University of Alaska Southeast website shows a missing webpage that was once the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Cultural Safety on Friday, Feb. 28. (Screenshot from the University of Alaska Southeast website)
Earlier this week, Palmer met with the UAS Executive Cabinet to discuss a preliminary plan to address the board’s motion on DEI.
“Given the vast number of web pages, electronic, and print documents that represent the university that needed to be reviewed for DEI terms, our first step was to make an inventory of the incidences of the terms,” Palmer wrote in an email sent to UAS faculty and staff on Friday and forwarded to the Juneau Empire.
“At the same time, we realized that we needed to review a handful of key, very visible webpages for immediate action.”
Palmer said she hoped the inventory would be completed by the end of Friday. Then the group will determine how to approach any potential changes and who will need to be involved.
“Because of the scale of the potential changes, the Cabinet and I have requested of the (UA) President that we work to implement the Board’s motion over the course of the remainder of the spring semester so that we can be thoughtful in our considerations and cognizant of our accreditation requirements,” she wrote. “Please know that changes to areas that deeply involve staff and faculty will be made in close consultation with the relevant employees. We will also work in concert with the leadership of Faculty Senate and Staff Council.”
Palmer said academic freedom and freedom of expression will be preserved, UAS will continue to support its Alaska Native Studies and Programs, and Disability Services will remain unchanged.
The Executive Cabinet is meeting on Tuesday to determine the next steps.
In the signature of her email, a land acknowledgement read that UAS is honored to exist on “the traditional territories of the Áakʼw Ḵwáan, Taantʼá Ḵwáan, and Sheet’ká Ḵwáan on Lingít Aaní, also known as Juneau, Ketchikan, and Sitka Alaska, adjacent to the ancestral home of the X̱aadas and Ts’msyen peoples.”
Jennifer Gross, the web coordinator for UAS, told the Juneau Empire on Thursday she had altered the footer at the bottom of the website, which contained the university’s nondiscrimination statement, to remove affirmative language. She said she was awaiting further instruction before making any other changes to the website.
A poster in the Native and Rural Student Center at the University of Alaska Southeast reads “Alaska is diverse, and so are our educators.” (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Some professors are reassuring their students that the way they teach, including course content, will remain unswayed by the BOR motion, which only enforces the removal of terms online and in printed materials.
Rosemarie Alexander-Isett, an associate professor of communication, made an online announcement to her public speaking class on Sunday. It declared that every class would start with a Tlingit land acknowledgment in light of the BOR vote on Feb. 21.
“Though it isn’t the same, we can vocally recognize the university’s place through the land acknowledgment and affirm our need for diversity, equity and inclusion,” Alexander-Isett wrote. “A short version has already been printed in our syllabus. You can use it or the version you prefer. In addition, those who are not from Southeast Alaska can affirm your own community at the end of the Tlingit land acknowledgment.”
Jules gave the land acknowledgment in the class on Monday.
Jay Szczepanski II, an assistant professor of English, said the BOR decision seemed rash. He noted that the vote was not on the board’s agenda for the Feb. 21 meeting, and that day a federal judge in Maryland granted a preliminary injunction that barred parts of Trump’s orders to cancel federal contracts that have DEI components.
“To have that major decision voted on there before anybody could even talk to them about what might be a more reasonable course of action, or to say perhaps these executive orders are not legal to me is really disappointing,” he said. “They have been paused, but because the Board of Regents has decided this, it is not paused. Here it is now our policy. We also have, and I think this is unfortunate and hurtful — unnecessarily hurtful — we have individuals who are in a minoritized status on campus, so racial minorities are having to go through our website to take out mentions of equity and diversity.”
A poster that was added in the University of Alaska Southeast Egan Library following the University of Alaska Board of Regents decision on Friday, Feb. 21, shows a librarian’s support for freedom of speech, academic freedom, diversity, equity and inclusion. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Szczepanski said professors have been informed that the BOR is committed to academic freedom, academic inquiry and the free speech rights of the university’s employees.
“It shouldn’t change anything we do in the classroom unless the board decides that academic freedom protections no longer apply,” he said. “The faculty are here for the students like we’ve always been and will continue to be, and we’ll continue supporting students personally and professionally as we have.”
In an email to the UAS Whalesong, Alaska Native languages professor X̱’unei Lance Twitchell said the board’s action to ban the words could contribute to a hostile work environment.
“The opposite of diversity is homogeny, the opposite of equity is disparity, and the opposite of inclusion is exclusion,” Twitchell wrote. ”If the University of Alaska is now against these concepts, which have been vital to the advancement of civil liberties for historically oppressed peoples, then we are now an embarrassment to the concept of academic freedom and education as free exploration.”
• Contact Jasz Garrett at jasz.garrett@juneauempire.com or (907) 723-9356.
