Higher Education

Dismantling Campus DEI in Arkansas

How lawmakers can end divisive, race-essentializing programs and protect students’ First Amendment rights.

Grotesque Campus Antisemitism is Fueled by Woke Takeover of Higher Education

“There are moments in this life… when… pure, unadulterated evil is unleashed on this world.” That is how President Biden first described Hamas’s gruesome premeditated attack on Israeli civilians.

STATEMENT: AFPI Commends Representative Steel’s DETERRENT Act

30 State Higher Education Policy Priorities of the America First Agenda

The America First Policy Institute’s Higher Education Reform Initiative works to develop and advance policy reforms that invigorate a competitive higher education marketplace, strengthen protections for free expression on campus, improve viewpoint diversity in the academy, and build civic literacy. As a starting point, the Initiative has identified 30 state policy priorities and provided examples of promising legislative initiatives that have recently been passed into law, introduced as bills, or developed as model legislation. Falling into nine broad categories, these priorities are designed to (1) combat divisive and ideological campus DEI initiatives, (2) protect students’ expressive rights, (3) protect students’ religious liberties, (4) enrich the marketplace of ideas by encouraging viewpoint diversity, (5) guarantee minimum due process rights in sexual misconduct investigations, (6) incentivize innovation, efficiency, and delivery of programs that prepare students to enter the workforce with employable skills that are responsive to private sector needs (7) improve governance accountability, (8) improve civics literacy, and (9) combat foreign influence on American campuses. This is an evolving resource intended to inform and educate policymakers. All feedback is welcome.

ISSUE BRIEF: DEI spells CRT at Arkansas Universities: Reasonable Restrictions on Campus Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives Will Strengthen the Academic Climate

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs are radical offshoots of Critical Race Theory (CRT), a Marxist doctrine that rejects equal treatment and meritocracy in favor of reverse discrimination to advantage favored identity groups. DEI operates as an industrial complex of programs, people, and policies working together to create powerful incentives and career-threatening penalties that reach into every corner of the institution.