Texas public colleges are freezing or amending 131 scholarships with race-based eligibility requirements in order to comply with the state’s new law prohibiting spending on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, according to The Dallas Morning News. That includes 80 scholarships at Texas A&M University system campuses, many of which are intended to diversify historically white-dominated STEM fields.
The anti-DEI law has also prompted public higher ed institutions to shutter diversity and LGBTQ+ centers across the state and lay off dozens of staff focused on DEI programming.
Texas is one of many states where minority scholarships are under attack. The University of Missouri system has worked to eliminate them at all four campuses over the past year—not to comply with a state law against DEI initiatives, but in response to the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision, which the Missouri Attorney General argues applies to financial aid as well as admissions.
In both Texas and Missouri, many of the affected scholarships were funded by donors who have had no say in the amended use of their money.
