How Florida State University quietly dismantled its diversity, equity and inclusion office

Amid the DeSantis administration's push to gut diversity, equity and inclusion programs in higher education, Florida State University quietly dismantled its DEI office.

But the university did it mainly by changing title names and reclassifying positions of employees who were already working in DEI to give them different roles — an approach that did not require laying anyone off.

The revelation of FSU's moves came a few days after the University of Florida in Gainesville very publicly announced that it got rid of its related programs by firing all of its DEI employees.

Compliance of the universities follow Gov. Ron DeSantis’s conservative focus on education, where he signed a measure (SB 266) into law last year to remove DEI programs in the state's public colleges and universities.