Texas opens new website for reporting alleged DEI violations at public colleges

The public can now file complaints alleging violations of state laws banning “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs at public Texas colleges and universities.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Office of the Ombudsman recently announced a new website where individuals can file these complaints and provide feedback. The website’s heading states, “ensuring that in Texas, students come first.”

The Office of the Ombudsman monitors for legal compliance and serves as an intermediary between Texas institutions of higher education, the state legislature, and the general public, according to the Office of the Governor.

A higher education expert at a conservative research institute praised the office’s new website for increasing transparency in a phone interview with The College Fix.

Texas Public Policy Foundation Director Thomas Lindsay said the website allows people to report alleged violations of Senate Bill 17, which bans DEI offices, training, and staff at Texas public universities. It also covers suspected violations of Senate Bill 37, which expands oversight and accountability in areas such as governance, curriculum, hiring, and faculty roles.

“The legislature was not going to be duped by merely renaming offices away from DEI to something else,” without actually rooting out discriminatory practices, he said.

“Empowering individuals to monitor and report compliance … aligns with both … liberty … and personal responsibility,” Lindsay said.

He believes that by holding institutions accountable, higher education will better serve the students of Texas.

“It will also help to attract talent and to maximize effective use of resources, and in that way, it will help maintain Texas’s competitive edge … in higher education,” Lindsay said.

He also said this initiative is particularly important as “public trust in higher education has plummeted in the last 10 or 15 years.”

“It’s rather shocking, but taxpayers and prospective students and their parents have come to doubt that higher ed is worth its value. This measure will help restore public trust in higher education,” the public policy expert said.

However, some free speech advocates are critical of forums such as this one. 

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression spokesman Tyler Coward said the main issue comes down to whether the state is limiting its own speech or restricting the speech and academic freedom of students and faculty.

“Anytime there’s … a reporting feature like this, it runs the risk of chilling speech, particularly academic instruction,” he said. 

“Universities are exactly the places where controversial ideas should be discussed and debated and contested,” Coward said.

He noted that Texas A&M University canceled certain courses after interpreting a federal executive order defining sex as binary and applying it to the university’s curriculum. He described this as an “over-application” of the law.

He said lawmakers should clearly state in legislation and public statements that efforts to rein in DEI offices do not affect classroom instruction.

He said prioritizing censorship over academic freedom ultimately harms the learning environment.

On the new website, students can file statutory complaints to the THECB for investigation. Additionally, the website will also direct students to the existing complaint portal if they have already completed the grievance process at their school.

Students must include proper documentation and evidence, including facts in support of the statement. Non-statutory complaints may also be submitted, but the process of resolution is slightly different.

Individuals who deliberately submit false claims will be held financially responsible for the costs they incur, according to the office’s website.