Texas Attorney General issues sweeping opinion against DEI

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said decades of DEI programs violate state and federal law. His office called for immediate rollback across agencies, schools and local governments.

https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/texas-attorney-general-issues-sweeping-opinion-against-dei/

#TexasPolitics #Austin #Local #News #PoliticalNews #Texas #TopStories #AttorneyGeneralKenPaxton #Dei

You can make your posts more accessible and inclusive by putting hashtags at the end.

When you place hashtags after the main text of a post, screen‑reader users can hear the core message first without interruption. This simple adjustment ensures that blind and visually‑impaired persons receive the essential information clearly and promptly.

Beyond accessibility, this small practice reflects a genuine commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

It's always good to think how the digital content is experienced by everyone, so we can create a more welcoming and inclusive digital space.

As inclusion is an important aspect of communication and communities, let's remember about it. Small thing to do, but improves experience of so many people.

#hashtags #socialmedia #digital #Vebinet #Mastodon #VebinetTips #DEI #inclusion #fediverse #accessibility

Equity is built through systems. Leaders must translate values into fair access and opportunity.

#MLKDay #EquityInTech #DEI #InclusiveLeadership #DiversityImpact

The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) is actively seeking out white males who feel they have experienced discrimination.

The commissioner, a "vocal" DEI critic, even posted call-out(s) on social media.

#USA #US #USpol #EEOC #racism #discrimination #employment #workplace #DEI #DEI #ICYMI
--

Head of workplace rights agency urges white men to report discrimination~
(article from December)

https://apnews.com/article/dei-white-men-discrimination-andrea-lucas-eeoc-2996e71763dd0fe4b7f377eb49036fbe

New UNC policy requiring syllabi be posted online takes effect – The Carolina Journal

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Education, State Government, Universities

New UNC policy requiring syllabi be posted online takes effect

By David N. Bass, January 16, 2026

Listen to this story (4 minutes)

University of North Carolina System president Peter Hans is implementing a new policy that requires instructors to post course descriptions and syllabi to an online searchable database. The move is designed to increase public transparency, with recent polling showing growing skepticism toward institutions of higher education.

Under the directive from Hans that took effect Jan. 15, the syllabi must include:

• Course name, prefix, and description
• Goals, objectives, and student learning outcomes
• Explanation of assessment, grading scale, assignment breakdown, and impact of attendance/participation
• List of all required course materials
• A statement affirming the course engages diverse scholarly perspectives for critical thinking and that reading inclusion doesn’t imply endorsement

The directive also mandates that syllabi be posted to an online searchable database “no later than one week prior to the first day of classes for the applicable semester or session.” If the materials are not available due to operational limitations, they must be posted by the first day of classes.

“There is no question that making course syllabi publicly available will mean hearing feedback and criticism from people who may disagree with what’s being taught or how it’s being presented,” Hans told the News & Observer. “That’s a normal fact of life at a public institution, and we should expect a vibrant and open society to have debates that extend beyond the walls of campus.”

The move has garnered opposition from the NC American Association of University Professors.

“This policy will stifle academic freedom, chill free inquiry, and expose educators and students to politically motivated attacks and targeted harassment. At its core, this new directive is an effort to intimidate instructors whose research and teaching delves into subject matter that some politicians don’t want to see explored,” said AAUP President Todd Wolfson in a statement.

“Dark money–funded right-wing activists and their allies in the UNC System’s leadership are attempting to strangle critical thought and the free exchange of academic thought by harassing faculty, disrupting student learning, and threatening the pursuit of truth,” Wolfson added. “Ultimately, Peter Hans’ regulation amounts to a doxxing database that will further empower those attempting to censor teaching and learning in the UNC System.”

Jenna Robinson, president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, wrote a letter praising the decision by Hans but cautioned that more needs to be done.

“The UNC System’s decision to make syllabi public is a significant step towards greater transparency,” Robinson said. “It’s disappointing that not all reading materials will be listed in syllabi. I hope this can be addressed in a subsequent policy revision.”

A Pew Research Center poll from October found that seven-in-10 Americans now say higher education is generally headed in the wrong direction. That’s an increase from 56% who said the same in 2020.

Topics on this page

University of North Carolina System University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The News & Observer James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal Pew Research Center

DrWeb’s Response to This at UNC campuses and elsewhere…

This is overly zealous, over-reaching policy, exposure to negative reactions, lawsuits, professors critized publicly and more, no good reason. Anyone can request the materials. That’s a valid policy. Have them available on demand. Prevents trolling and Internet “wackos” from causing schools and teachers major issues.

Hidden in all this is what this is all about. DEI. Diversity. Equity. Inclusion. Right-wing Trump and other supporters view that DEI is bad, discriminates against “white people,” and so on. Though hidden in these outcomes, this is what is causing this shift and change in academic freedoms and public information about higher education. Isn’t it the University’s goal to offer broad, diverse views? Isn’t it the University’s goal to empart valuable modern views about society, its groups, its economy, its education? By your process, you prevent those philosphies and views from having a chance to be voiced in your institutions. That is a hidden kind of “censorship,” and violates our freedoms in America.

Online invites unintended consequences, harm, or legal challenges. Your attempted “social experiment” will harm your students, faculty, and higher education. No good reason to boldly go where no one needs to go –and put up a red flag –here’s what we teach, if you don’t like it, complain, sue, argue, post publicly and so on.

Your thinking is stone age. This is 2026, and not everything needs total full public disclosure. Show me your tax returns next? Did you accept any gifts or income last year to teach this or that? And so on.. Broaden your thinking and your values. Public disclosure has many harmful consequences, and no added benefit. –DrWeb, my views…

See Also: ACLU about this type of action by Trump in 2nd term: https://www.aclu.org/trump-on-dei-and-anti-discrimination-law

Here’s the other schools and actions like the one at UNC, as developed for me and this post by Gemini.

Other Major Schools Doing Similar Public Disclosure…

The January 16, 2026, report from the Carolina Journal confirms that the UNC System’s mandate, directed by President Peter Hans, officially took effect on January 15. This policy (Regulation 400.1.6[R]) requires all 16 campuses to maintain an online, searchable database accessible to the public.

For your post on DrWeb’s Domain, here is the specific list of institutions and systems where similar public-facing mandates have been implemented. These databases are explicitly designed to allow external parties to monitor course content, reading lists, and faculty credentials.

U.S. Public Institutions with Searchable Syllabus Databases

Key Findings for DrWeb’s Domain

• Public Record Reclassification: The Carolina Journal article highlights that the UNC policy treats syllabi as public records. This shift is critical as it bypasses faculty claims of intellectual property or “academic freedom” in favor of taxpayer and legislative “transparency.”
• The “Doxxing” Database Concern: As noted in the UNC debate, faculty groups (like the AAUP) have explicitly labeled these searchable repositories as “doxxing databases” intended to facilitate politically motivated harassment of educators whose subject matter is deemed controversial by outside activists.
• Uniformity through Vendors: Many of these institutions are moving away from decentralized department PDFs and toward third-party aggregators like Simple Syllabus and CourseLeaf. These platforms make it easier for external groups to run automated keyword searches (e.g., for “equity,” “gender,” or “social justice”) across an entire state’s higher education system simultaneously.
• Pre-emptive Scrutiny: The Florida model is the most aggressive, requiring public access 45 days prior to the start of the semester. This allows for public complaints and legal questions to be raised before a single lecture has been delivered.

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