Utah HB 261 takes effect, requiring state colleges to close central DEI offices and ban diversity statements

Utah's House Bill 261 took effect, requiring state colleges and universities to eliminate their central diversity, equity, and inclusion offices, ban the use of diversity statements in hiring and admissions, and prohibit the expenditure of state funds on DEI programming. Compliance materials published by Salt Lake Community College and other Utah institutions documented how the law forced them to dismantle advising programs, close offices, and reassign staff who had worked on equity-related student services. The law's requirement to ban diversity statements in hiring processes — documents that faculty candidates had commonly used to describe their commitments to inclusive teaching — represented one of the most direct incursions into the academic hiring process among any state anti-DEI law.