Despite the rain and hazy conditions, around 50 students and community members marched Monday from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s campus to the Hamilton County Courthouse to protest against new state laws that led the university to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives on campus.
In order to comply with the laws, UTC announced in late September it would close the Center for Women and Gender Equity, the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Office of Student & Family Engagement and the Prism Center, which supported LGBTQ+ students. The centers closed Oct. 10.
“These centers were not just a place of community where everyone could be together, but it’s a place where some people finally felt safe to be … themselves,” sophomore Jacob Rozier said.
“That’s what college is about,” he continued. “It’s about finding out who you are and being able to express it in a way that’s undeterred by any society, undeterred by any parents, by any other people, and that’s what these communities mean for so many people. It’s their home, it’s their place where they can be themselves and taking that away takes away so much of that safety that college campuses provide.”
UTC students continue to protest DEI legislation
(READ MORE: UTC students protest against rollback of DEI programs on campus)
The closed offices were merged into a new Center for Student Leadership, Engagement and Community, which had a soft opening Oct. 15, the day students came back from fall break. Registered student organizations, student life, Greek life and large campus events, such as homecoming, all fall under the center, said Jay Blackman, the vice chancellor of communications and marketing.
“The Office of Student Affairs is reviewing the services provided by each of those individual centers and working to ensure that those services are transitioned over to the new center, another area or a student organization,” Blackman said in an email. “They will be supported in a way that is open to all students and not focused on one specific group.”
For instance, the new center hosted the university’s fall family weekend, which previously fell under the Office of Student & Family Engagement. Take Back the Night, an event taking a stand against sexual violence that was previously organized by the Center for Women and Gender Equity, was run by the Office of Title IX Compliance, according to information posted on UTC’s website.
In an Oct. 15 email to employees and students, the university clarified some concerns that had been raised due to the changes on campus. Among other items, it said student organizations focused on students of a particular identity were not prohibited as long as membership was open to all, as well as that student groups were allowed to hold events celebrating specific identities’ history or other similar topics.
(READ MORE: Thousands attend ‘No Kings’ rally in Chattanooga)
UTC’s compliance review is ongoing, the email said, and “additional proactive adjustments to its programs and activities may be made to ensure compliance with the law.”
Blackman said the university did not have a response to the protest.
Monday marked the second time UTC students have protested against legislation that Tennessee lawmakers passed earlier this year aimed at ending initiatives in state government, local governments and public universities that promote consideration of race, gender, national origin, age and other characteristics in hiring decisions. Another new state law bars governments and public universities from operating offices using discriminatory preferences to advance diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.
Supporters have said they believe such efforts are discriminatory and that the legislation was about restoring fairness
As students stood in front of the Hamilton County Courthouse, they chanted, “The students united will never be divided” and “When human rights are under attack, we stand up and we fight back.”
Some passing cars honked in rapid bursts as drivers raised their fists in support. One driver laid on the horn for several seconds and held a thumbs down out of the car’s window.
Several students at the march said they didn’t know where they would be able to get services on campus that were previously run by one of the closed centers. Others said they didn’t know where student groups they belonged to, which previously met in one of the closed centers, would now meet.
The Prism Center had pride flags and posters about important figures in the LGBTQ+ rights movement on the wall that allowed students to learn about different parts of the community. There’s not really a space for that now on campus, junior Aspen Sanderson said.
“What UTC has done, they are adhering to the laws, but that doesn’t change the fact that people here are being affected by it,” Sanderson said in an interview. “We’re not protesting the school, but we are protesting what has been done and hoping that we can make a difference.”
The students are working to get state lawmakers to introduce legislation that would repeal the laws prohibiting DEI efforts, said Elyssa Looney, the president of UTC Civic Engagement, which organized the protest.
Olivia Hughes, a sophomore, said the atmosphere on campus has felt more divided in the weeks since the university’s announcement about the centers’ closure.
“There’s a big divide in between … people who are in support and people who are against, and I feel like it has not brought us together,” she said in an interview. “What they were saying would have made us more equal is just drawing us further apart.”
Contact education reporter Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.