In an email sent to all faculty, staff and students at UTSA, President Taylor Eighmy announced on Jan. 2 that the university’s decision to repurpose the Office of Inclusive Excellence, which closed in response to the Texas Legislature’s Senate Bill 17 (SB 17), would no longer be occurring. SB 17 went into effect on Jan. 1, resulting in the closure of all diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at public higher education institutions. As a result, the Office of Inclusive Excellence was directly impacted and closed on Jan. 1.
“After continued and considered evaluation, we decided not to launch the new office. Given our evolving understanding of SB 17 as well as continuing voluntary changes in staffing and personnel reappointments from that office, it no longer made sense to launch the new office,” Eighmy said.
The plan to repurpose the office was established by Eighmy in December, when he shared that a new department titled the Office of Campus and Community Belonging would serve as a way to “enhance [the] university’s mission and create unique opportunities for faculty, staff and students” while ensuring the university remains in compliance with the new state law.
The office was said to focus on three pillars: ADA & Accessibility, Campus Climate and Community Partnership Bridges. Eighmy also said that the individuals who previously served in the Office of Inclusive Excellence would now have roles with updated responsibilities to support the purpose and vision of the new and repurposed department.
In his Jan. 2 announcement, Eighmy stated that the previously mentioned pillars of the new office would be distributed across different departments. “Instead, we will leverage the strong capabilities of our existing offices and divisions to realign ADA and disability services, campus climate and community engagement activities across various institutional divisions.”
This announcement did not mention what would now be happening to the former employees of the Office of Inclusive Excellence, as part of the plan to repurpose the department was to grant these employees new roles in the Office of Campus and Community Belonging. Therefore, UTSA Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications and External Affairs Joe Izbrand was asked to clarify the status of the former employees.
“At the beginning of the last academic year, there were seven full-time employees in the former Office of Inclusive Excellence. Three of them voluntarily sought positions elsewhere in the university and were hired into other, separately budgeted positions unrelated to the activities covered by SB 17,” Izbrand shared via email. He also added that one employee voluntarily separated from UTSA, leaving three remaining employees who have now been reassigned to other divisions working in compliance with SB 17-permissible activities.
According to Express News, UTSA began its diversity program five years ago, which implemented the creation of a new “vice president for inclusive excellence” position. This position was filled by Dr. Myron Anderson, who has served as the founding vice president of Inclusive Excellence since 2019. With the closure of the Office of Inclusive Excellence, the future of his position was also unclear and not stated in Eighmy’s Jan. 2 announcement.
In the same email, Izbrand provided additional clarification on the status of Dr. Anderson, sharing that he “has returned to [the] faculty ranks, where he has two decades of experience in teaching technology evaluation.” His work will focus on supporting the quality assessment for UTSA’s fully online courses.
UTSA plans to continue updating faculty, staff and students on the university’s compliance with SB 17 and how this will impact the university moving forward. For future updates on the matter, refer to our site or utsatoday.com.
