Amid the ongoing battle between the Department of Education and the nation’s school systems, the push to remove DEI programs has seen its effect on the University of Arizona.
On Feb. 19, the UA’s website removed the words, “committed to diversity and inclusion” from the university’s land acknowledgment. This is the first change to the land acknowledgment since former President Robert C. Robbins made the university-wide implementation in July 2021. Robbins was aided by tribal leaders from the 22 federally recognized tribes in Arizona in the creation of the acknowledgment.
This comes as the Department of Education’s 14-day deadline for canceling DEI and other diversity initiatives inches closer. Just recently, the UA also shut down its Office for Diversity and Inclusion to keep up with the department’s orders.
On the same day, the Office of Native American Advancement & Tribal Engagement, otherwise known as NAATE, hosted the 4th Annual Tribal Leader’s Summit & Student Engagement on the first floor of the university’s Campus Store.
According to an email sent from the Assistant Vice Provost for Native American Initiatives, Tessa Dysart, the event was to have students “connect with Tribal leaders across the state and share your experiences as a University of Arizona Wildcat.”
In a video taken during the event, Jacquelyn Francisco, a UA law student and the president of the UA’s Native & Indigenous Law Students Association attempted to speak at the event but was repeatedly stopped by Dysart. Dysart and other event members physically held Francisco back to try stopping her from speaking.
Francisco was able to speak, however, and spoke against the university’s land acknowledgment change and the ill-notification of Native Students and Tribal officials for the decision.
“If he [President Suresh Garimella] and the university were really committed they would not delete those words,” Francisco said. “This is where we stand up and we challenge the university when they come after our community.”
The event staff attempted several times to interrupt Francisco during her speech after Francisco asked tribal leaders whether they had been notified of the change in the land acknowledgment.
Francisco would be joined by fellow law student, Winona Little Owl-Ignacio, after Dysert and Nathan Levi Esquerra, senior vice president of NAATE.
“What we need from your tribal officials, from our tribal officials, is for you to stand with us, especially when President Trump is handing down these DEI Initiatives and saying that we don’t need that. We need these resources that come from Native American Student Affairs,” Little Owl-Ignacio said. “I am not O’odham only when I wear my shells or when I am out there signing the Running Man song. I am O’odham every day.”
Francisco and Little Owl-Ignacio would both end their time and then would be followed by Esquerra, who tried to back up the university change in the land acknowledgment.
Esquerra discussed how the university and the U.S. government view these native nations as separate political entities that don’t fall under the DEI umbrella. Thus, removing the words within the land acknowledgment doesn’t mean they won’t treat and incorporate native actions, but rather continue to be viewed as separate entities.
During Esquerra’s speech, attendees both questioned his reasoning regarding the political influence on education organizations and provided their own experiences with issues regarding their representation at the university.
“The university shouldn’t be attempting or trying to be a political organization reflecting political messages […] that was always supposed to be separate,” an attendee said. “I think that what everyone here that’s upset is saying is that we don’t know whose being represented correctly and accurately because if all of us feel like that’s not okay to remove that then we’re not being listened to […] and we’re not seeing it through action.”
This echoed the ideas from Francisco and Little Owl-Ignacio of the role of educational spaces in political environments.
Dysart closed up the event by detailing her own experiences going to law school as a native, Indigenous student.
“One thing that attracted me to this job was to be a voice and to help you all,” said Dysart. “When I was a law student, I was one of three native students in my class at Harvard and to come here and see so many native faces it’s so encouraging.”
Similarly, the Student Bar Association at the UA’s James E. Rodgers College of Law put out a statement reflecting this change in land acknowledgment. SBA detailed how they want to continue efforts to incorporate these practices to create a community of acceptance and inclusivity.
“We firmly believe that our community is strong when it embraces diversity and Inclusivity,” the UA’s SBA statement read.
O’odham Student and Allies had similar remarks in a joint statement with Voices for Indigenous Concern in Education saying that the narrative of native silence is being pushed once again as they tried to prevent Francisco from speaking about her opinions.
“Now, we are dangerously in peril of going back to the Indian Boarding School era,” said OSA and VOICE in their joint statement.
At the same time, the Arizona State Senate Education Committee has recently pushed out SB1694. According to the Fact Sheet for SB1694, this bill proposes that higher educational institutions in the state will not receive state funding if that institution, “offers one or more courses on diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Such implications at a state level may not be felt for months if such a bill were to be passed. However, the federal-level push might have hit its own roadblock.
On Feb. 21, Adam Abelson, a United States District Court Judge in Maryland, placed an injunction on Trump’s current orders leaving the current state of the President’s push to eradicate DEI programs up to question.
The suit was jointly filed by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, American, Association of University Professors, Restaurant Opportunities Centers United and the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, Maryland.
Now that an injunction is in place, the UA and other federally funded higher educational institutions will continue to have to make choices on whether to follow Trump’s orders to rescind their anti-DEI implementations.
