BIRMINGHAM — Professors and students at the University of Alabama said in federal court Thursday that a 2024
state law banning DEI
and so-called “divisive concepts” had chilled academic freedom and thrown funding for student organizations into uncertainty.
The testimony concluded a two-day evidentiary hearing over the law, known as SB 129, before U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor. A group of professors and students have sued the state and the University of Alabama Board of Trustees over the statute, saying it violated the First and Fourteenth amendments.
Richard Fording, a UA political science professor focusing on race and politics, said Thursday that the law has forced him to make significant changes to his courses, including reducing coverage of topics such as the Black Power movement, Black Lives Matter, and white nationalism. Fording also said it led him to cancel an undergraduate course on “Politics and Poverty.” He said he was concerned about teaching topics that could be interpreted as violating the law.
“That’s a decision I made based on everything that I witnessed since (SB 129 has) been implemented,” he said.
In two other courses, “Social Movements and U.S. Politics” and “Politics of Voting Rights,” Fording said he removed some discussions on systemic racism and oppression, central to the social movements he teaches and the history of voting rights, to avoid any student complaints and potential sanctions. He no longer assigns related readings and refrains from facilitating class discussions on these sensitive topics.
“(In) group discussions, students may express opinions that relate to divisive concepts, and because I facilitate those discussions, if those discussions become kind of one-sided, that can make a student feel like they’re being compelled to assent,” Fording said.
Cassandra Simon, a professor in the University of Alabama’s School of Social Work, testified that the law led to a class project chosen by students being abruptly canceled “the morning that we were to have it.”
Simon said that Dean Schnavia Smith Hatcher of the UA School of Social Work asked in an email for the project to be canceled because it “could be viewed as sponsoring a program that promotes DEI” by requiring “a student assent to a divisive concept” and “attend or participate in coursework that advocates” for a divisive concept.
She disagreed and told Hatcher that the class picks the project to work on while she offers support, and that she had “never gotten into trouble.” But according to Simon, Hatcher said she would “be subject to progressive disciplinary action up to and including termination.”
“I was specifically told in an email by my administrator, my immediate supervisor, my dean, that if I did my did not have my students cancel their project that I would be subjecting myself to, in the exact words, progressive disciplinary action up to and including termination,” Simon said in a press conference Thursday.
Simon called the law vague and confusing, saying that she still does not understand why her class project was canceled.
“I still don’t understand what [SB 129] is. I am not a non-intelligent person. I have talked to many people who don’t understand what it is, all who are very intelligent and informed, and view themselves as the experts in their fields and as educators,” she said.
Both professors said that while they were not directly told to change their courses to comply with SB 129, they did so out of caution due to UA’s administration treatment of Dana Patton, a director of the Witt Fellows Program and a political science professor at the University of Alabama who testified Wednesday, during an investigation of anonymous complaints that claimed the program was “embedded” with “divisive concepts.” In
her testimony,
she detailed an intense investigation she faced after the university received an anonymous complaint.
“I felt like the administration should have determined if it actually was students in my course who complained and talked to other students in my class, because I was being accused of violating the law, and that complaint came from the state legislature, so I felt like there should have been a little bit more investigation into that,” Patton said in a press conference Thursday.
Students who testified in Thursday’s hearing said that SB 129 has also impacted funding for school organizations that may potentially promote “divisive concepts.”
Sydney Testman, a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) political science student, said that the Social Justice Advocacy Council (SJAC) was “demoted” from a “university funded organization” to a “registered student organization” after SB 129’s implementation, which meant that they no longer automatically received funding from UAB. Because the organization lost funding, her role as finance coordinator, which provided her and other student leaders with a yearly stipend, was also terminated.
Miguel Luna, a UAB student studying political science and history, testified that his organization, Esperanza, which focuses on Hispanic and Latine students, relied on funding from the former Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), which was rebranded as the Office of Access and Engagement to comply with SB 129, and other organizations like SJAC.
Since the anti-DEI law was implemented, he said he lost access to those funds and could no longer provide incentives like food at events, leading to a decline in the events they have hosted.
“Many other student organizations have also found that when you provide incentives, people will attend, especially the off campus people that you’re trying to reach,” Luna said.
During cross-examination by Jay Ezelle, an attorney representing the UA Board of Trustees, Luna acknowledged that Esperanza did not apply for direct USGA funding in the most recent academic year, partly because the deadline had passed and he believed, based on his experience on the executive council of USGA, that Esperanza would not be eligible due to its mission.
Judge Proctor asked why the organization didn’t submit the application anyway.
“What would have been involved in submitting? Why not take a chance? Why not take the effort, submit the application, get a ‘no,’ rather than assume,” Proctor asked.
Ja’coby Bibbs, a UA political science student and president of the UA chapter of the NAACP student chapter, detailed the historical significance and practical benefits of the Black Student Union (BSU) and the LGBTQ+ center that was closed in August to comply with SB 129. He said the BSU office, located on the first floor of the Student Center, served as a hub for fostering connections, mentorship, and community among Black students and other minority groups.
“The Black Student Union space was invaluable to my experience, to my success at the University of Alabama,” Bibbs said, adding that the space helped him in his application to the Blackburn Institute, a prestigious leadership development and civic engagement program for UA students. He emphasized that the BSU space was open to all students, regardless of race or ethnicity, and did not require membership or a fee for entry.
Bibbs recounted an incident involving racist text messages sent to Black students on campus, stressing that the absence of the BSU space deprived students of a place to “cultivate and really digest what was happening.” He described the BSU as “an ode to the trailblazers who came before us,” including the first Black students and professors at the university.
The BSU space was a place where “people who get me, people who look like me, understand what I’m going through,” Bibbs said.
Proctor indicated he wants to decide whether to issue an injunction before class starts in August and might rule on the state’s motion to dismiss after. An oral argument hearing is scheduled for July 2.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News:
University of Alabama professors, students say state DEI ban hurt classes, activities
