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Kansas State University has erased further influences of diversity, equity, and inclusion programming after receiving a student whistleblower complaint alleging some lingering policies did not align with state law.
This month, a top campus official reported to the State Finance Council it has resolved the complaint and ended mandatory DEI training for the student government and student fee funding allocations to groups that promote DEI, the Kansas Reflector reported.
Kansas last year passed Senate Bill 125, which included language prohibiting the funding of DEI programs after August 2025.
The new law caused the university to take steps toward the reduction of DEI, such as eliminating diversity initiatives, removing pronouns from email signatures, and replacing the word “diversity” with the word “all” in its mission statement.
But one student, who is not named in Kansas reports, argued it wasn’t enough, and demanded further steps, filing a complaint last July with the State Finance Council.
The student claimed the student government continued to fund a student-run committee called the Student Engagement Committee, whose mission was to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout campus.
“The July whistleblower complaint alleged the Community Engagement Committee controlled a little more than $137,000 in the 2024-2025 school year, and that the group ‘overwhelmingly funds identity-based and progressive-aligned organizations,'” the Lawrence Journal-World reported.
After months of waiting, the state council focusing on financial allocations to universities and state agencies received an update earlier this month, solidifying the change.
Marshall Stewart, executive vice president for external engagement at K-State, told the council campus leaders took the complaint “very seriously” and “there was language in student government where they were providing funds for DEI-related work that would be in conflict with Senate Bill 125.” It led him to inform the student government of the need for changes, as reported by the Journal.
Stewart said the KSU Student Government cancelled any funds scheduled toward groups promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and distanced itself from those with mission statements promoting the ideology.
The College Fix sent multiple emails to the Kansas State University Student Government Association, Stewart, as well as Kansas State University media affairs division, and did not receive a response.
However, Reagan Dugan, director of higher education initiatives at Defending Education, told The College Fix that “DEI programs inevitably lead to divisive identity-based and ideological groups. While Kansas Senate Bill 125 was clear that these sorts of things have no place in higher education, it is entirely unsurprising that compliance with the bill has taken so long.”
The presence of DEI at KSU had inspired Young America’s Foundation, a conservative youth organization present at campuses across America, to also weigh in, issuing its own complaint last year to the Department of Education civil rights office last March.
In its 29-page complaint to the Office for Civil Rights, the group warned the department of “significant and ongoing civil rights violations against conservative students” at the university, including the presence of a “Spectrum Center,” diversity-focused policies, and a “Committee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging.”
A major focus of Trump’s second administration has been the elimination of DEI and gender politics in higher education. The president issued multiple executive orders within his first couple days in office, while cracking down on colleges promoting the ideology.
State legislators continue their attempts at improving the quality of education in Kansas, raising concerns about the effects of permitting diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in higher education.
“At Defending Education we’ve found more than two hundred institutions across the country still operating DEI offices, many of which merely changed the office’s name on the website,” Defending Education’s Dugan told The College Fix. “Passing legislation is only the first step in cleaning out the rot. I’m encouraged that the state of Kansas sees the importance of enforcement too.”
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