NEWS

Senate panel votes to strip University of Tennessee diversity funds

Adam Tamburin
USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

The General Assembly's attempt to defund the University of Tennessee's Office for Diversity and Inclusion won additional approval Tuesday, although senators signaled some internal disagreement on the issue.

Sen. Todd Gardenhire's bill would divert all state funds from the Knoxville office's budget to minority scholarships for engineering students. It would also bar the university from using state funds to support the annual Sex Week programming or gender-neutral pronouns.

The bill passed 9-2 Tuesday in the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee. It appears to be headed for the Senate floor, although multiple senators in the committee suggested they disagreed with the version of the bill that was passed by the House of Representatives Monday evening.

The House bill was amended to send about $100,000 of the Knoxville diversity office’s funding to a program that would print “In God We Trust” decals for law enforcement vehicles while sending about $336,000 to minority scholarships.

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Both chambers will have to agree on one version of the bill for it to become law.

Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, who amended his bill to remove the decal program completely, said it would be "inappropriate" to adopt the House's version of the bill. After the vote, Gardenhire said he doubted the Senate would approve a version of the bill that included the decal program. But, he said, the bill without the decal program had a good chance of passing.

Republican lawmakers have threatened to defund the diversity office for months after two controversial posts on the office website that promoted the use of gender-neutral pronouns and "inclusive holiday celebrations." University officials eventually removed both posts, but lawmakers have continued to question UT's diversity funding throughout the legislative session.

UT has not commented on how the diversity office would operate if the bill became law, or if the people in that office would lose their jobs without the state funding the office depends on. In a statement Tuesday, university spokeswoman Karen Simsen said “it is speculative for the university to comment about pending legislation.”

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Many UT students have spoken out against the legislature's efforts to strip diversity funding there, casting it as an attack on campus diversity. As the Senate panel voted, hundreds of students in Knoxville walked out of class as part of a previously scheduled protest on the issue.

Sen. Steven Dickerson, R-Nashville, spoke out against the bill Tuesday, echoing his previous comments on the matter. Dickerson said it would be a "procedural error" for the legislature to micromanage the university on a department level.

Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and on Twitter @tamburintweets.