{"id":2471,"date":"2025-07-23T15:50:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T15:50:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/?p=2471"},"modified":"2026-05-01T04:54:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:54:53","slug":"update-re-mtsu-compliance-with-state-and-federal-dei-mandates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/update-re-mtsu-compliance-with-state-and-federal-dei-mandates\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE RE: MTSU Compliance with State and Federal DEI Mandates"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>\n<p>To the University Community,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier this summer,&nbsp;on June 10 and June 17,&nbsp;I&nbsp;sent University-wide communications to keep you informed of efforts that&nbsp;we must take to ensure compliance with state and federal mandates regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion&nbsp;(DEI). Following those communications,&nbsp;my office&nbsp;worked&nbsp;closely with the Office of the&nbsp;University&nbsp;Counsel, the Provost, and our Vice Presidents to identify programs and activities impacted by the various executive orders, court rulings, and legislation to assure compliance with all applicable orders and laws.&nbsp;As such, the University has taken the following actions to comply with the referenced&nbsp;DEI-mandated directives:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Restructured and modified existing scholarships by removing any reference to identified, prohibited criteria in compliance with DEI directives;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Closed\u00a0the June Anderson Center for Women and Nontraditional Students;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Closed\u00a0the Office of Intercultural and Diversity Affairs;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Identified\u00a0and removed\u00a0website references to diversity, equity, and\/or inclusion with the intention to remove or adjust as appropriate\u00a0(this continues to be an ongoing process);<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Restructured\u00a0the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance to be the Office of Civil Rights Compliance to better reflect its new responsibilities, specifically eliminated the review functions of employment equity;\u00a0and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Closed\u00a0the Center for Fairness, Justice, and Equity in the College of Education.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to the above actions already taken, the university will finalize its decision and take then necessary actions to address the following to be effective on or before Sept. 1,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Identifying and removing references on MTSU\u2019s\u00a0websites\u00a0that are counter to the referenced\u00a0DEI\u00a0directives (this review is ongoing);<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Restructuring the functions and activities of\u00a0the Office of the Assistant to the President for\u00a0Community\u00a0Engagement and Inclusion to eliminate its inclusion functions;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reviewing\u00a0University\u00a0support for affinity groups or programs that focus on characteristics that fall within the\u00a0referenced\u00a0DEI\u00a0mandates, with the\u00a0intent to adjust and\/or eliminate where warranted;\u00a0and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reviewing\u00a0policy references to diversity, equity, and\/or inclusion or related activities, as defined by the referenced\u00a0DEI\u00a0mandates, with the\u00a0intention to\u00a0adjust and\/or eliminate where warranted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As I have previously noted, our work to comply&nbsp;with&nbsp;the&nbsp;state and federal laws and mandates have been&nbsp;comprehensive. &nbsp;If subsequent&nbsp;reviews&nbsp;identify&nbsp;additional impacted&nbsp;areas not noted above, we will address&nbsp;them&nbsp;using the same standards and make any necessary adjustments to the affected units, programs, and\/or services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, again, we know these changes have caused some&nbsp;concerns&nbsp;across our&nbsp;community.&nbsp;However, let me reiterate, MTSU has, and will continue,&nbsp;to serve all students and provide the resources needed to succeed.&nbsp;That commitment is unwavering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am confident that, working together, we can provide our Blue Raider family with the resources needed to thrive in our ever-changing world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sincerely,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sidney A. McPhee<br>President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To the University Community, Earlier this summer,&nbsp;on June 10 and June 17,&nbsp;I&nbsp;sent University-wide communications to keep you informed of efforts that&nbsp;we must take to ensure compliance with state and federal mandates regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion&nbsp;(DEI). Following those communications,&nbsp;my office&nbsp;worked&nbsp;closely with the Office of the&nbsp;University&nbsp;Counsel, the Provost, and our Vice Presidents to identify programs and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3011,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions\/3011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mtsu.edu\/president\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}