Hundreds of Kentucky college students protest bill to ban DEI across state universities

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Hundreds of students at public universities across Kentucky on Friday, from the University of Louisville (UofL) to the University of Kentucky (UK) to Western Kentucky (WKU), protested state Republican-led efforts to disband Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs and policies.

It's become a lightning rod issue all over the country, and it comes as Republican lawmakers in Frankfort tell WHAS11 they expect the bill to ban DEI on Kentucky's college campuses to pass and become law by the end of this legislative session.

"We do listen, definitely, to all the concerns and the issues that are there, but in terms of us monitoring what each college campus is doing, I wouldn't say that right now we're so in tune to that as much as we are about Frankfort," Republican State Sen. Max Wise, the majority floor leader, told WHAS11.

UofL Sophomore Anne Emongo from Georgetown, Kentucky, has already seen the changes on campus.

"I'm a Woodford R. Porter Scholar, which is a historically Black scholarship program, and I think that it makes it a little bit harder for students like us who have to work a little harder to get scholarships like that," she said at the protest on UofL's campus. "The Cultural and Equity Center... they have to change the name to the Cultural and Success Center because you can't have equity in there. So, it's just like micro changes and stuff like that."

Students wrote messages like "DEI will not die" in chalk, while counter-protester UofL employee Zhong Yang wore a shirt reading "DEI... Didn't Earn It."

"Why are you emphasizing gender, why are you emphasizing race... you should be using the same even standard for everybody," Yang told a student.

"When I go to the hospital or on the airplane, I don't care about my doctor or my pilot's skin care... I don't care at all. I only want the best service I can get. I only want the best treatment I can get," he said.

Speaking to the crowd, UofL Pan-African studies professor Ricky Jones encouraged students to let University President Kim Schatzel know that they don't feel wanted or protected.

Kentucky bills targeting DEI on college campuses failed to pass last year, but this year state Senate Republican leader Max Wise says he expects it to reach the finish line.

Schools like UK have already dismantled their DEI office, amid pressure from Republicans. Wise says there's still a need for a law banning it statewide.

"I think what we're seeing especially at the federal level from the Trump administration, we still want to make sure as we're watching those things and monitoring that... that we want to have something still in place here," Wise said.

Students like Emongo say they're not giving in.

"I just think it's something that we have to stand up for," she said.

The bill targeting DEI policies at Kentucky's public universities, House Bill 4, is sitting in a House committee right now.