Constructing Compliance and Equity: University Leadership Discourse in Implementing Texas’s Anti-DEI Policy

• In Event: Institutions in Flux: Navigating Institutional Change and Political Tension in Higher Education

Abstract

This study examines how university presidents at Texas public institutions construct and communicate responses to state legislation dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Anchored in racialized organization theory and crisis communication scholarship on crises in higher education, this embedded single-case study focuses on the legislative cycle of 2023 – 2025, during which Senate Bill 17 (SB 17) was introduced. Using critical discourse analysis of public testimony by university leaders, the study explores how leadership navigate compliance while contending with racial equity commitments. Findings will reveal how university leaders discursively manage legitimacy and compliance within a racially charged political ecology.

Author

• Julio J. Mena Bernal, University of Texas at Austin