Diversity, Equity, & Implosion

Fallout from UVA's decision to end DEI efforts results in extreme webpage make-overs and a call from the Governor for a UVA BOV member to resign.

The webpage of the Equity Center at UVA has a new name and a new way of describing its mission.

March 26 Update: Gov. Youngkin fires UVA BOV member Bert Ellis after he refuses to step down, saying his conduct "on many occasions has violated the Commonwealth's Code of Conduct for our Boards and Commissions and the Board of Visitors' statement of Visitor Responsibilities."

One strategy being used by various organizations who fear being in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s recent DEI purge isn’t to eliminate programs but to quietly rebrand and describe them differently. That is certainly what UVA’s Equity Center has done. In fact, this sleight of hand went completely unnoticed in a recent C-Ville Weekly article about the University of Virginia Board of Visitors decision to shutter the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), which used the Equity Center’s replacement name, the Center for Community Partnerships, without mentioning that virginiaequitycenter.org now redire…