From the Lawrence Journal-World: University of Kansas employees with official KU email accounts soon will be prohibited from listing their preferred pronouns — he/she and they/them, for example — as part of their email signature lines. KU Chancellor Douglas Girod sent an email to KU faculty and staff members Tuesday notifying them that signature lines that communicate which pronouns the sender prefers were deemed to be out of compliance with a provision approved by the Kansas Legislature during its last session. KU employees — including student employees — must remove all such pronouns and other “gender ideology” from their KU work accounts by the end of this month.
“All employees shall comply with this directive by removing gender-identifying pronouns and personal pronoun series from their KU email signature blocks, webpages and Zoom/Teams screen IDs, and any other form of university communications,” Girod said in his email message to employees.
Girod said the Kansas Board of Regents, the entity that oversees KU and the state’s other public universities, recently made the determination that such gender pronouns are out of compliance with the direction of the Kansas Legislature, which included the requirement in a budget bill that provides funding for the universities. A majority of members in the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature expressed various concerns about diversity, equity and inclusion policies on university campuses, and the budget proviso grew from those concerns. To not comply with the pronoun provision of the budget bill could put significant amounts of KU’s state funding at risk...
From KCRG: Governor Kim Reynolds has filed a complaint over a newly-released video of a University of Iowa employee talking about DEI. The video, posted on Fox News Tuesday, is heavily edited. It is unclear who took the video, or what led up the employee’s statements. In the video, Andrea Tinoco, Assistant Director of Leadership and Student Organization Development, makes several comments regarding DEI at the University of Iowa. During the conversation with the unknown individual, Tinoco says their website was scrubbed to remove DEI terms. The video then skips part of the conversation. Tinoco continues by saying they are “finding ways to operate around it”, and gives an example, stating “oh, we can’t use that word? ... Okay, ‘civic engagement’.”
...She then goes on to say DEI will stay in class, and that she doesn’t care. She also describes the University of Iowa as the “most combative” of the three universities, and says she is proud of the fight. Finally, Tinoco claims that DEI and student organizations still exist, despite the changes in the law. Governor Reynolds released a statement in response to the video Tuesday. She also filed a complaint against the University of Iowa with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
“I’m appalled by the remarks made in this video by a University of Iowa employee who blatantly admits to defying DEI restrictions I signed into law on May 9, 2024,” said Reynolds. “I already issued a letter to the Board of Regents on January 23, 2025, reminding university representatives to comply, not only with state law, but an executive order signed by President Trump ending implementation of DEI policies at public institutions. I will be referring this matter to Attorney General Brenna Bird for her review as it relates to Iowa’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Act.” ...
Full story at https://www.kcrg.com/2025/07/30/governor-responds-video-univ-iowa-employee-admitting-defying-dei-policies/.
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