Around 30 students, faculty and staff gathered at the Cistern Yard, a green space at the heart of the College of Charleston. The day was sunny and windy. Catkins fell from towering live oaks.
The crowd was not there to enjoy the spring weather. The students, holding handmade signs with phrases in support for equity and diversity in education, were on a mission. They were protesting an anti-diversity and inclusion bill making its way through South Carolina’s Legislature.
The bill, which passed the House and is headed to a Senate vote, would prevent public South Carolina colleges and universities from using diversity, equity or inclusion (DEI) principles in hiring and admissions. It would also require higher education institutions to submit an internal audit to the Legislature each year about all of their DEI policies.
Critics warn that the bill’s nebulous language could harm certain student organizations. They said this bill is the first wave of anti-DEI bills they expect to flood the Legislature in coming years. In an interview, state Rep. Tim McGinnis, a Carolina Forest Republican and one of the bill’s authors, said what legislators uncover in the audits will give them “the opportunity to more narrowly focus the bill.”
The legislation is part of a national movement led by big-name conservative politicians and online influencer groups to pressure state legislators to pass laws limiting DEI initiatives on college campuses. These groups allege DEI policies in academia and the corporate world have not resulted in a more diverse pool of qualified candidates, but an environment where one’s skin color or social status trumps their merit.
As the bill moves through the Legislature, South Carolina’s most well-known colleges and universities have stayed largely silent on how it will impact them. Some have quietly removed DEI language from their websites and certain initiatives. Others have issued short statements saying they plan on complying with state law. One reason C of C’s Black Student Union held the April 4 protest was because they wanted President Andrew Hsu to speak about the bill and show support for minority students on campus.
Reporters from The Post and Courier interviewed administrators, faculty and students at Clemson University, the University of South Carolina and the College of Charleston to get an inside look at the bill’s potential impact. Though it’s not weighing on the minds of many of those on campuses in the Palmetto State, it’s a pressing issue for faculty and students of color, and those in political circles.
Debates about the bill have played out in classrooms, protests and in the opinion section of a university’s student newspaper. Conservative voices on campus said that DEI approaches lack impact and amount to new forms of discrimination. Professors are worried the bill will deter minority academics from joining their ranks. Students of color are concerned it will strip away safe spaces and support services they rely on.
Some of these students said the bill sent an underlying but clear message: They’re not wanted in South Carolina.
Rise of anti-DEI laws
A national anti-DEI movement has grown in recent years. It was spearheaded by organizations like the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative advocacy group, and Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, which made DEI policies in higher education a hot topic in conservative and mainstream media.
The discussions evolved into tangible policy.
In Florida, a model anti-DEI bill drafted by Rufo soon found its way into the governor’s office, according to documents obtained by the left-leaning watchdog group American Oversight.
At least 10 states, including Florida, passed legislation limiting DEI policies on college campuses as of April 3, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures.
In some states, consequences for schools that avoid complying could be severe. In Texas, the Senate Committee on Education recently told the University of North Texas system that lawmakers could freeze state funding or sue if schools did not comply with the new law.
South Carolina is one of three states with pending anti-DEI legislation. Its bill is not as far-reaching as the ones in Florida or Texas. It focuses on public colleges and universities using DEI principles in hiring or admissions practices, and requiring the internal audits.
A main concern of critics is that DEI is loosely defined in the bill. They worry it could be used to justify eliminating viewpoints on college campuses that South Carolina’s conservative legislators do not agree with.
Some legislators contemplated whether the USC Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium, sponsored by the university’s Office of Access and Opportunity, would be targeted. Others think it could threaten programs to boost the number of teachers of color in the classroom or even Black student unions that are ubiquitous features of most public school campuses across the United States.
“Any attempts to stifle open dialogue and debate on societal issues poses a threat to the very foundation of our educational institutions and the very fabric of our democracy,” Rep. Ivory Thigpen, D-Columbia, said March 28 during a Statehouse press conference opposing the bill.
Conservative politicians who support the bill said there is a “silent majority” who sees the need for this legislation. McGinnis said it’s an attempt to “build bridges” between groups.
“This is about leveling the playing field,” he said. “To me, this is about judging people on their merits. This is not about group identity. This is not about whether I believe everybody has a right to be and identify with any group they want to.”
A renaming trend
South Carolina’s colleges and universities have stayed tight-lipped about how the bill could change their recruitment of students and staff or what programs or policies could change.
USC said its “policies will remain consistent with federal and state law.” C of C said diversity was one of its core values, and it declined to answer questions about the bill’s potential impact on the school’s recruitment and hiring practices, or on student programs, to “respect the legislative process.”
In recent testimony to lawmakers, Max Allen, Clemson’s senior vice president and chief of staff, said the bill would have minimal, if any, impact because the school is “not in the business of requiring mandatory DEI training for employees or students.”
“Simply put, this is not something we do. We also do not have diversity statements. We are not in the indoctrination business. We are a strong proponent of free speech and support the rights of individuals to exercise their free speech rights,” Allen said.
The Post and Courier found that some universities have been quietly walking back DEI initiatives.
USC hired its first vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion, Julian Williams, in 2020. His appointment came as a cabinet-level position, giving his office more direct communication to the president, a larger staff and budget and increased visibility.
Williams’ job title was scrubbed of DEI language as part of an administrative realignment in 2023 amid conservative political attacks against the phrase. He now is vice president of “access, civil rights and community engagement.”
In December, Clemson renamed its office the Division of Community Engagement, Belonging and Access (CEBA). Allen said Clemson hired a consultant to look at higher education trends, which is where the renaming of this department stemmed from.
The paper also found Clemson removed some DEI language from its website. After the Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action in June, Clemson was the only major S.C. university polled by The Post and Courier to decline to say whether it has considered race as a factor in admissions.
At the time, Clemson’s admissions website said that “diversity, legacy status and first-generation status” were considered when reviewing applications. Now, this language has been replaced with a mention that “not everyone has the same opportunities,” and coursework, activities and curriculum are examined in the context of what is offered at a student’s high school.
Demographics at these schools have fluctuated through the years.
At Clemson, student and faculty demographics have remained flat, according to data from the university’s factbook, although the percentage of Black students had a slight decrease from 6.6 in 2016 to 5.6 percent in 2023.
At USC, the number of minority students as well as faculty has increased from 2016 to the present. The percentage of Black students grew from 9.7 percent in 2016, to 10.1 percent in 2023-24. The percentages of Hispanic and Asian students also grew, from 4.0 and 2.8 in 2016-17, to 5.6 and 4.2 percent in 2023-24, respectively. In 2016, the school reported that 9.1 percent of faculty was part of the category of “unrepresented minorities”, while in 2022, this grew to 11.5 percent.
In the case of C of C undergraduates, the Asian student population remained at 2 percent in 2016 and 2022, while the Black demographic decreased from 8.1 in 2016 to 6 percent in 2022, with the Hispanic student population growing from 5 to 6.8 percent. Minority faculty numbers at this campus have remained flat from 2016 through 2022, at 23 percent.
Some members of these schools’ faculty were vocal about how the bill could negatively impact years of progress on campus and in South Carolina as a whole.
At the April 4 protest in Charleston, Simon Lewis, professor and director of the school’s Race Equity and Inclusion (REI) initiative, stood in front of other attendees holding a sign that read that diversity remains a core value at the college.
Lewis said that opposition to DEI efforts and the intentions behind the bill of undermining discrimination in college campuses was “nonsensical”.
“There are already very substantial laws in place to protect from discrimination of any kind, whether it’s race, gender, sexuality or opinion,” he said. “Those laws already exist; they are already substantial enough. This law, even in its currently diluted form, scares people away.”
Lewis said that if the bill passes, an element of fear from minority students to step foot on campus will be renewed, reminiscing on the days succeeding the Civil Rights Act and C of C opening its doors to Black students in 1967 after going private in 1949 to avoid integration.
“People were scared, rightly, to come to these places. If this bill passes, this campus will become even more White. That’s not what we want,” Lewis said.
Meleana Cabales, a vocal performance major at the College of Charleston poses for a photo on the second floor of the Cato Center for the Arts on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 in Charleston. A music major, Cabales is president of the Asian Student Association at the college. Cabales said that regardless of the practicalities of the bill, the thought behind it sends a negative message to POC students in South Carolina who are already enrolled in public colleges and universities, and those who may be applying to them who might also be first-generation students. “I think it says to these students ‘we don't care about your representation in secondary education, we don't care about your ability to feel comfortable at school, or your sense of belonging on your college campus,’” she said.
Student voices
Mikyra Joines thought it was important to find something that would help her build community at C of C. Joines was one the founders of the Black Student Union at her high school, so she wanted to find a space in college where she felt safe to be herself and where she could grow into the woman she is meant to be.
She is president of C of C’s Black Student Union and has ensured that the group provides a mouthpiece for minority students on campus. Sometimes this means meeting with the school’s administration or releasing statements about things going on in the politics sphere locally or statewide.
When Joines was an incoming student, she said she was fortunate to participate in the Speedy Consolidation and Transition program (SPECTRA) at the school, which is offered to minority students. The program allows them to experience campus the summer before their freshman year by living on campus, attending classes and participating in activities to build relationships with other students, helping them make a smooth transition to college.
Joines emphasized that the impending status of South Carolina’s anti-DEI bill could be a threat to programs like SPECTRA, which can be a lifeline for incoming minority students in terms of finding community, successfully adapting to college life and completing their degrees.
Mikyra Joines, President of the Black Student Union, speaks to fellow students who gather at the College of Charleston’s Cistern Yard to protest the anti-DEI bill in the House of Representatives on April 4, 2024.
She said SPECTRA students are more likely to be retained and wondered if as many Black students would stay enrolled if the program was lost.
“Whenever I see this bill, I see every conversation that we’ve had with the president’s administration no longer existing,” she said. “I see students not being able to participate in programs like SPECTRA. I see a classroom where I don’t feel encouraged to express myself and who I am as an individual.”
Joines believes the bill’s vague language of what DEI is leaves an open door to interpret it in ways that could mean cutting academic or student programs, classes, funding, scholarships or multicultural student groups for minority students, which can serve as spaces that foster a strong sense of belonging.
This was the case for Julio Domingo, a junior at USC who said that there weren’t many students like him in class or in the university’s Honors College, which he’s a part of. That feeling of isolation changed when he found the Latin American Student Organization on campus. He since has become its president.
“When I first arrived, I had a lot of trouble just finding a community,” Domingo said. But this changes when he’s with his organization or at events put on by the university’s Office of Multicultural Student Affairs. “That’s where I feel a sense of community, and I feel like I belong,” he said.
Other students whose campus experiences could potentially be impacted by the bill shared their concerns.
Bernie McIlnay, a USC senior who leads the school’s LGBTQ+ student group Individuals Respecting Identities and Sexualities (IRIS), said the club is “very concerned” because it is a queer organization within the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs, which itself is an organization that is heavily tied to the ideas of diversity, equity and inclusion.
But these aren’t the only points of view. On these campuses, groups of conservative students see the bill as a sign campuses will change for the better.
A different take
Brendan Connors, Uncensored America’s campus president at USC, said skin color should not be a reflection on one’s ability to “perform well.”
He said that he understands the argument that such considerations are necessary for righting historical inequities, but he doesn’t think such an approach actually works.
Instead, he believes it amounts to a new form of injustice.
“Eventually, we have to cut our losses and say, ‘Look, the only way to move forward is to get rid of discrimination,’ period,” he said.
Many people nationwide oppose incorporating DEI principles into higher education institutions. A 2023 Pew Research survey said that a plurality of Americans did not think race should be a factor in college admissions or hiring.
Janiya Jones, a Black junior at Clemson, thinks that the bill will push out the programs that promote DEI and make bringing students together more difficult, but also said that race should not be considered as part of the admission process because it should be an “open playing field for everyone.”
A growing body of research shows that DEI initiatives in higher education institutions are important for different aspects of a student’s college experience, from social to educational aspects.
Studies have shown they are crucial to building a sense of belonging for students and teach them how to navigate cultural differences in a diverse world. Some show that student and staff satisfaction is higher at ethnic and racially diverse campuses. Experts suggest that a diverse student body promotes higher graduation rates, increases civil participation and lowers levels of prejudice.
The soon-to-be graduates of colleges and universities in South Carolina whose lives may be negatively impacted by anti-DEI bills are faced with a choice. Do they move to a more progressive state or stay and try to be the change they want to see?
Staying or leaving
Robby Mayfield, a C of C freshman, said that for some students who belong to underrepresented minorities, it’s becoming scarier to live in states that have passed anti-DEI bills.
“I feel like if the bill gets passed, I will probably continue undergrad here, but I don’t know that I would seek another degree in this state.”
Senior Jailyah Sumter joins fellow students who gather at the College of Charleston’s Cistern to protest the anti-DEI bill in the House of Representatives on April 4, 2024.
The question of staying or leaving if the bill passes is one that minority students have begun asking themselves. The answer to this, whether yes or no, is complicated.
Jaliyah Sumpter, vice president of the Black Student Union at C of C, said she thinks about her younger siblings who may want to go to college, as well as future generations, when analyzing the repercussions the bill could have.
“Would they still want to go to a college where there is no more diversity, equity and inclusion? Or would they want to go to a different state where there is, but they’re further away from home?” she said.
For others, like Joines, leaving is not an option for many reasons. Her roots are in South Carolina, she comes from a low-income background and is a first-generation student.
“Now, if you had asked me that maybe four years ago, I would say yes, the bill would make me want to flee the state expeditiously,” she said.
She still has hope that even if the bill passes, she can be one to stay, work to make a change and “get into good trouble.”
But she acknowledged that although there have been barriers in the past, this time around feels like there is no room to fight.
“They’re trying to tell us there isn’t. Now, that might not stop us, but that’s what it feels like the message coming from the Statehouse is,” she said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified a state representative as a member of the S.C. Freedom Caucus. State Rep. Tim McGinnis, R-Carolina Forest, is not a member of that group.
