(My new American Thinker post)
It's the last week of 2022, but Texas legislators are already proposing ideas. The latest comes from GOP Texas House Representative Carl Tepper:
Texas Republican Representative Carl Tepper has introduced a bill that seeks to forbid diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at all public universities in the Lonestar State.
The bill, introduced Dec. 13, seeks to ban “the funding, promotion, sponsorship or support of any office of diversity, equity and inclusion” as well as any “initiative or formulation of diversity, equity and inclusion beyond what is necessary to uphold the equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment.”
The legislation, HB 1006, also seeks to mandate that all higher education institutions adopt a policy that “demonstrates a commitment to intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity.”
And it would establish that public universities “foster a diversity of viewpoints” and “maintain political, social, and cultural neutrality.”
The legislation comes in the wake of the opening of Texas Tech’s Black Cultural Center in September, Tepper told The College Fix.
“In the new center, portraits of distinguished black alumni are displayed on the walls,” Tepper said via email. “I believe that distinguished black alumni should be displayed all over campus, including the student union building and other colleges and dorms.”
“College students and alumni should be able to appreciate distinguished black alumni (or any distinguished alumni) anywhere on campus.”
“I was disappointed that there would be such a segregated thing today,” Tepper said. “I think it’s obvious that segregation and self-segregation are dividing America.”
Texas Tech University did not respond to request from The College Fix seeking comment.
We will wait for Texas Tech to respond.
I don't know Representative Tepper. His district is in Lubbock, Texas, and he is a Texas Tech graduate, so that explains his interest in Texas Tech. According to his website, he is an Air Force veteran and lifelong Christian and conservative Republican.
I like Representative Tepper's proposal and it should be considered in other universities. What we are seeing in universities today used to be called segregation and racism when Reverend Martin Luther King marched in the 1960s. In other words, university life should bring people together rather than separate them by race or ethnic groups.
The Texas legislature will be looking at lots of issues next spring, from abortion to school choice to expanding the power grid due to our expanding population. Nevertheless, I hope that Representative Tepper's get a full hearing.
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