Purdue Sunsets DEI Following Indiana Law Cracking Down on Divisive and Discriminatory Programs

Purdue University is ending its DEI activities and initiatives, according to a letter sent from Purdue University Provost Patrick Wolfe.

“Acting under the authority of our Board of Trustees, the University is sunsetting historical DEI activities and initiatives, effective today,” the letter reads. “An increasing number of actions and policy measures at both the federal and state level have made it clear that doing so is a necessary part of our future as a public university and a state educational institution.”

Purdue’s decision comes less than a month after Indiana Governor Mike Braun signed into law sweeping legislation, SB 289, that takes aim at a number of DEI initiatives in institutions of higher education and other publicly-funded entities.

Among other things, the law specifically targets “unlawful discrimination” in education, public employment, and licensure, as well as DEI committees in public universities; it also prohibits public educational institutions or employers from taking actions based on an individual’s “personal characteristic[s]” such as their race, religion, color, sex, national origin, or ancestry.

Purdue’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging and related activities in colleges and departments will close, the letter stated, and scholarship programs that are focused on diversity and race will be modified.

Purdue’s health and medical departments were strong proponents of DEI, as Do No Harm recently reported. 

For instance, Purdue’s School of Nursing boasted of its mission to “[uphold] the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion” on the department’s still-operational Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page, while Margo Monteith, Associate Dean for DEI, proclaimed that the College has “really baked in diversity, equity, and inclusion into the way that we operate.” 

Since the announcement, Purdue has scrubbed several DEI resources from its website, including the biographies of several of its DEI officials and the main campus’s DEI office.
However, other DEI resources, including the university’s Equity Task Force webpage, remain up.