(Georgia Recorder) – Some Kennesaw State University students say they will lose access to things like free menstrual products, foods from their home country or a sense of belonging at their university if the school follows through with plans to shut down student resource centers, apparently as part of an anti-diversity, equity and inclusion push.
According to students and faculty, programs on the chopping block could include initiatives for LGBTQ students, students of color, women, Latino students and aimed at promoting cultural awareness. The university has held meetings with students to discuss the proposed changes.
The university’s assistant vice president of communications, Tammy DeMel declined to answer emailed questions or clarify which resources may be on the way out, instead sending a statement:
“As KSU works to follow all federal and state regulations and the policies of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, we’ll continue to support the needs of all students and help them access the resources they need to succeed.”
Several dozen students gathered on the campus green Wednesday did not feel reassured. Protesters organized by Students for Socialism, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation marched around the school carrying signs and chanting slogans like “Say it loud, say it clear, resource centers will stay here.”
Freshman chemistry major Celeste Vincent said she’s used the resource centers and that they can be a godsend for students who didn’t get support back home, and that attempts to take them away feel hateful.
“Some people, it’s all they have,” she said. “They don’t have family, they don’t have friends, they don’t have the resources to reach out to people. They have this, and they want to take it away. Why? Why? Because they hate them, they hate kids, they hate the new generation. These kids paid good money to be here. They worked their asses off to graduate high school. They come here every day and they pay and they sit in their classes and they try to do their best. And the one support that we get, we’re told, you can’t have that because you’re less than. That’s what it boils down to.”
Grace Blomberg, a student and organizer, said some students feel like they’ve been subjected to a bait and switch.
“Students coming from rural parts of Georgia who in their schools had never seen a pride flag, had experienced lots of aggression, came and did tours and saw a center with pride flags up, and they immediately felt welcome, they immediately felt safe,” she said. “So that, I think, is a major factor in why students might choose KSU, and students are on tours currently right now, KSU may not be disclosing that the centers that they’re passing by won’t be here in the fall when they come to school.”
Other students who did not want their names published out of concern for retribution said the centers have provided them with services like menstrual products, contraception and information on women’s health. Students said the LGBTQ resource center provided clothes for transgender students allowing them to wear things their parents would not approve of, and other centers provide halal foods for Muslims and other foods that could be hard to find in the states.
Some students on the green Wednesday were less attached to the resource centers. Sophomore exercise science major Jack McFadin, who said he proudly voted for President Donald Trump, said he’s not opposed to all of the services the centers provide like counseling for students in need of help, but he said he is strongly opposed to DEI because he says it undermines merit-based achievements.
“I think as far as counseling resources go, I don’t really care because it doesn’t affect me,” he said. “But if it is DEI and it is just giving people scholarships because ‘I identify as this,’ then I think that’s a bad thing for the future of our country.”
In an executive order released in January, President Donald Trump sought to eliminate DEI, including from schools and colleges, calling it a way to peddle “dangerous, demeaning and immoral race- and sex-based preferences.”
Sara Giordano, an assistant professor in KSU’s department of interdisciplinary studies, said some feel like the school administration is caving to the Trump administration without putting up a fight.
“(Students) came back saying, ‘oh, KSU told us their hands are tied, they have to comply, and they’re doing this because of federal and state guidance, federal and state policies,’” Giordano said. “The problem is that none of these policies are in writing. There’s actually nothing that says any of these centers are illegal. These centers serve a lot of our students. Our students are devastated by the threat of them closing.”
“Universities, quite frankly, I think are using this – KSU is using this – as an excuse to close down student centers because of a conservative agenda,” she added.
A statewide ban on DEI in schools failed to pass in this year’s legislative session but could return when lawmakers come back to the Gold Dome in January.
