Amend the bill, as and if amended, Part IB, Section 11, COMMISSION ON HIGHER EDUCATION, page 336, after line 18, by adding an appropriately numbered paragraph to read:

/ (CHE: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) (A) From the funds appropriated to the Commission on Higher Education, the commission shall require all colleges and universities receiving state funds to issue a report detailing the total number of administrative and non-teaching positions that support or are associated with what is commonly referred to as "DEI" or "diversity, equity, and inclusion." The report shall include the total salaries and total operating costs associated with DEI. The commission shall forward the reports to the House of Representatives and the Senate.

For purposes of this subsection, DEI includes efforts to promote or promulgate policies and procedures designed and implemented with reference to race, color, or ethnicity; any effort to promote or promulgate trainings, programming, or activities designed and implemented with reference to race, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation; any effort to promote as the official position of the administration, the college, the university, or any administrative unit thereof, a particular, widely contested opinion referencing unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgender ideology, microaggressions, group marginalization, anti-racism, systemic oppression, social justice, intersectionality, neo-pronouns, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender theory, racial or sexual privilege, or any related formulation of these concepts. DEI includes any division, office, center, or other unit of an institution of higher education or component thereof which is responsible for creating, developing, designing, implementing, organizing, planning, or promoting policies, programming, training, practices, activities, and procedures relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion. A DEI officer is an individual who is: a full or part-time employee of an institution of higher education or component thereof or an independent contractor of an institution of higher education whose duties for the institution include coordinating, creating, developing, designing, implementing, organizing, planning, or promoting policies, programming, training, practices, activities, and procedures relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

(B)In the current fiscal year, no public or land-grant institution of higher education may expend any funds appropriated or authorized in this act, including salaries, to grant preference to any applicant for admission or employment or promotion on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin. Nothing in this proviso may be interpreted as prohibiting bona fide qualifications based on sex which are conducive to the normal operation of institutions of public education.

(C)In the current fiscal year, no public or land-grant institution of higher education may expend any funds appropriated or authorized in this act, including salaries, to make diversity training mandatory. Mandatory means a requirement of any kind imposed on a student, employee, or applicant for employment, including but not limited to a requirement, the nonfulfillment of which, may adversely affect the status, salary, or benefits of an employee or applicant for employment at the institution of higher education or component; a requirement to participate in any administrative process or decision-making body of the university, such as a hiring committee; a requirement to participate in any otherwise available program sponsored by the institution of higher education or component. Diversity training refers to interrelated concepts, such as purporting to describe or expose structures, systems, or relations of power, privilege, or subordination on the basis of race, sex, color, gender, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation; or purporting to describe methods to identify, dismantle, or oppose such structures, systems, or relations; or justifying differential treatment or special benefits conferred on the basis of race, sex, color, gender, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation. Diversity training also includes unconscious or implicit bias, cultural appropriation, allyship, transgenderism, microaggressions, micro-invalidation, group marginalization, anti-racism, systemic oppression, ethnocentrism, structural racism, structural inequity, social justice, intersectionality, neo-pronouns, inclusive language, heteronormativity, disparate impact, gender identity, gender theory, racial or sexual privilege, or related formulations of these concepts. Diversity training also includes a training, seminar, discussion group, workshop, or other instructional program, whether provided in-person, online, or by any other means, with a purpose of advising, counseling, demonstrating, explaining, instructing, or teaching participants about diversity, equity, and inclusion.

(D)In the current fiscal year, no public or land-grant institution of higher education may expend any funds appropriated or authorized in this act, including salaries, to require or solicit a diversity statement as part of an admissions process, employment application process, hiring process, contract renewal process, or promotion process; or as a condition of participation in any administrative or decision-making function of any public or land-grant post-secondary educational institution of the state. For the purposes of this subsection, diversity statement means any written or oral statement discussing the applicant or candidate's race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation; or the applicant or candidate's views on, experience with, or contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion; marginalized groups; anti-racism; social justice; intersectionality; confessing one's race-based privilege; or related concepts; or the applicant or candidate's views on or experience with the race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation of students and co-workers; the applicant's or candidate's views regarding any theory or practice that advocates for the differential treatment of any individual or groups of individuals based on race, sex, color, gender, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

Additionally, no public or land-grant institution of higher education shall grant preferential consideration to an applicant, teacher, employee, or student for opinions expressed or action taken pertaining to another individual or a group of individuals in which the institution's consideration is based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation of those other individuals.

(E) This proviso does not prohibit any program or training scripted by licensed attorneys and required to comply with the institution of higher education's obligations under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as amended, the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, as amended, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, applicable court order, or other applicable state and federal law, provided the institution of higher education makes the materials for the program publicly available on the institution of higher education's website. /

Amend totals and titles to conform.