University of Texas junior Isabel Bellard was part of the Fearless Leadership Institute, a program that supported Black and Hispanic female students. The program helped her find a community on campus with shared experiences and gave her access to opportunities she wouldn't have otherwise had, such as taking her first-ever flight to New York to network with businesses.

Then on Jan. 1, the state's anti-DEI law went into effect. The legislation signed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last year banned Diversity, Equity and Inclusion offices and initiatives at public universities and colleges.

At UT Austin, that meant the leadership institute shifted to support all women regardless of ethnicity. The university's Gender and Sexuality Center became the Women's Community Center. And the Division of Diversity and Campus Engagement, of which both programs were a part, morphed into the Division of Campus and Community Engagement to comply with the law.

This week, the university began laying off at least 60 staff members, according to two people with knowledge who spoke to the Austin American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network, on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the terminations publicly. In an email to the university community Tuesday, UT Austin President Jay Hartzell said that in implementing changes required under the law, the university would close the new campus division altogether and eliminate programs that "now overlap with our efforts elsewhere."

Bellard said she found out Tuesday that the leadership institute that meant so much to her was on the chopping block. An hour after Hartzell's email, Bellard said she saw the program's website was removed from UT's server.

The loss of the institute and other DEI programs is a crucial one, she said.

"Black people at UT, when they get here as students, the first question is where are all the other Black people?" Bellard said.

Only 4.5% of UT students in the fall 2023 semester were Black, according to a university fact-sheet. Black students were not allowed to attend UT until the 1950s.

"Most Black students, they're one of maybe two, maybe three other people of color in the room and so that creates this really isolating space for people of color," Bellard said. " "FLI was actually the space that said, 'Hey, there is a space for' you."

What is happening at UT Austin provides a revealing glimpse of what eliminating DEI initiatives can mean at the campus level, to individual students and student communities. A growing number of higher education institutions are grappling with state anti-DEI laws and protests from students and faculty who say the programs help improve student diversity and bring them a sense of belonging on campus.

At least 82 bills seeking to slash higher education DEI initiatives have been introduced in 28 states and the US Congress, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's DEI legislation tracker. A dozen have been signed into law, including in Alabama, Florida, and Utah.

Amid a state DEI ban:The University of Texas lays off dozens of employees

University of Texas Austin students: 'We didn't see this coming'

Lacey Reynolds, a junior at UT and the president of the Onyx Honors Society, said she attended an emergency meeting with hundreds of students Tuesday night to process the news and action items.

"We didn't see this coming," Reynolds said. "We had no idea we would be hit this hard."

All students are affected by this, Reynolds said, adding that students are planning to stand up for staff members being let go ― many of whom felt like "families away from home."

"It's really hard right now being a student leader, when the people who you would seek advice from have lost their voices," she said. "Being a Black president at a predominantly white school during a fight that people are now starting to call 'Jim Crow 2.0.,' I would say it's extremely difficult, very heavy."

Shocked and angry, UT senior Amanda Garcia, an organizer for Texas Students for DEI, also attended the student emergency meeting Tuesday.

Over the summer and fall, Garcia said she had been in meetings with administrators and student groups to discuss how SB 17 would be implemented on campus. But, she said, she had no idea this was coming.

"Up until this point we had believed the administration was in some ways willing to work with us," Garcia said.

The loss of the division and staff members comes after UT Austin shuttered the Multicultural Engagement Center; ended a program to support undocumented students, and cut its sponsorship of student groups at the center, including the Afrikan American Affairs, Asian Desi Pacific Islander American Collective, Latinx Community Affairs, and Native American and Indigenous Collective.

Garcia said the groups are now running GoFundMe accounts to make up for thousands of dollars lost from their budgets.

UT's Division of Diversity and Campus Engagement 'a national model'

The university's Division of Diversity and Campus Engagement was "a national model for integrating diversity and community engagement into the core mission of a university," according to an in-house description of the department in December.

In an impact report last year, articles described how the division was working to support students academically and professionally and how the division's work enhanced the university's strategic plan, "Change Starts Here."

"We know that many people of different groups and identities need to be at the table to solve the world’s biggest challenges and dream up new innovations for a better tomorrow," the report says. "That is why our units are supporting and uplifting diverse talent in an effort to make The University of Texas at Austin the world’s most impactful public university."

Hartzell, the university president, said in his email Tuesday that the university found that restructuring and rebranding the Diversity division wasn't enough.

"We have concluded that additional measures are necessary to reduce overlap, streamline student-facing portfolios, and optimize and redirect resources into our fundamental activities of teaching and research," he wrote.

Nineteen of the division's programs have been relocated to other divisions, including the Sweatt Center, the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, Advise Texas, First Generation Longhorns and Disability and Access. The Women's Community Center is not on that list.

Hartzell said the Division of Student Affairs would work to make student-facing services available through the end of the semester.

The Texas NAACP and the Texas Conference of American Association of University Professors released a joint statement decrying the university's actions, saying the division had already been modified to comply with the anti-DEI and dismantling it "appears to be an inappropriate and unnecessary." They called on the university to be more transparent about the moves and the related layoffs.

Multiple elected officials and social justice groups have also called on UT-Austin to reinstate the eliminated positions and programs.

UT students not giving up, pledge fight on DEI programs

Garcia said students are mobilizing and coming together in "unprecedented" ways to figure out how to support staff members who were laid off and move forward.

"We're more determined now than ever," they said. "I think they really underestimated how much these staff members meant to students."

Bellard also said that students will fight for staff members and for the return of programs that were integral to her experience at UT.

"In order for any marginalized students to be treated fairly at the University of Texas, because they weren't accepted for so long, diversity and identity-specific programs and partnerships are critical in developing students' sense of belonging" on a campus where white students are the majority, she added. "If I was a freshman, I'd be considering transferring and getting my degree from a different university."

Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@usatoday.com. Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez. Lily Kepner can be reached at lkepner@statesman.com or on X @lilykepner.

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