State legislatures have passed an unprecedented number of laws this year that severely restrict colleges’ efforts to recruit and retain faculty and students of color, as well as how employees can talk about race, gender, and sexuality in the classroom.
Fourteen laws have been enacted this year in 12 states, aiming to dismantle what’s commonly referred to as diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, according to a Chronicle analysis.
That compares to just 14 laws in the 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions combined.
Anti-DEI laws ban a variety of efforts, including, for example, spending money on diversity programs, hiring diversity officers, and the teaching of white supremacy in courses required to graduate.
President Trump this year accelerated the momentum behind the anti-DEI movement through a series of executive orders banning race-conscious initiatives.
Conservatives say those efforts discriminate against white men, are ineffective, and unconstitutional.
Nearly 90 colleges in the 12 states that passed anti-DEI legislation this year have already made changes to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, according to a Chronicle tracker.
Below is a map showing states where laws have passed since 2023, as well as a roundup of the laws enacted this year.
- Bill: SB 289
- Summary: The law bans spending on diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and personnel; public colleges from conducting internal DEI audits, engaging with DEI consultants, diversity training, and identity-based preferences in hiring.
- Effective date: July 1, 2025
- Related coverage: Lawmakers send anti-DEI bill to Gov. Braun. Here’s what it does. (IndyStar)
- Bill: HF 856
- Summary: The law bans public colleges from using preferential hiring on the basis of race, color, or ethnicity; using affirmative action in admissions; funding DEI offices; employing DEI officers; requiring diversity training; administrators from referencing “unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, antiracism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neopronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial privilege, sexual privilege, or any related formulation of these concepts” in programs, training, or policies.
- Effective date: July 1, 2025
- Related coverage: Gov. Kim Reynolds signs into law sweeping limits on DEI for Iowa governmental entities (Des Moines Register)
- Bill: HB 1193
- Summary: The law bans public colleges from using DEI programs; mandating diversity training; using diversity statements in hiring; and teaching concepts including “transgender ideology, gender-neutral pronouns, heteronormativity, gender theory, sexual privilege, or any related formulation of these concepts” in any university program, academic course, or office.
- Effective date: July 1, 2025
- Related coverage: Mississippi House passes bill banning DEI programs in public schools (Super Talk Mississippi)
- Bill: SB1/HB6
- Summary: The law bans identity-based preferences and the use of diversity statements in hiring, promotion, and admissions; mandated diversity training; and DEI offices. Colleges would also need to confirm that they provide “the fullest degree of intellectual diversity” and that administrators “seek out invited speakers who have diverse ideological or political views.”
- Effective date: June 27, 2025
- Related coverage: This out-of-state university is advertising to Ohio since the passage of SB 1 (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Bill: SB 796
- Summary: The law bans public colleges from using public funds on DEI positions, departments, activities, procedures, or programs if they grant preferential treatment based on race, color, ethnicity, or national origin; mandatory diversity training; mandating employees to disclose their pronouns; and diversity statements in hiring.
- Effective date: July 1, 2025
- Related coverage: Lawmakers clash over DEI funding ban in Oklahoma higher education (News9)
- Bill: SB 37
- Summary: Lawmakers gave public colleges’ boards of regents significant control over the curriculum, including reviewing courses every five years to ensure they don’t include what content critics consider “DEI.” The law also sets up a DEI complaint process and establishes a statewide committee to evaluate which courses should be part of students’ curriculum.
- Effective date: September 1, 2025
- Related coverage: Texas Senate approves bill that could reshape how history and race are taught in state universities (The Texas Tribune)
- Bill: SB 474
- Summary: Lawmakers banned public colleges from requiring diversity statements in hiring, promotion, or admissions; giving preferential treatment to applicants, students, faculty, and staff members based on their race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation; mandating diversity training; spending public funds on DEI-related initiatives; teaching in required courses the idea that one race, ethnic group, or biological sex is “morally, or intellectually superior to another race, ethnic group, or biological sex for any inherent or innate reason.”
- Effective date: Jul 11, 2025
- Related coverage: ‘We don’t need it anymore’: WV Senate passes bill banning DEI in state government, schools (West Virginia Watch)
- Bill: HB 0147
- Summary: The law bans public universities and community colleges from engaging in or requiring any DEI program, activity, or policy including diversity training and identity-based preferences.
- Effective date: July 1, 2025
- Related coverage: Wyoming Governor Signs Anti-DEI Law Restricting Curriculum (Inside Higher Ed)
