Kansas Public University leaders have ordered employees to remove “gender identification pronouns or gender ideology” from their email signatures. Officials said they abide by the new state prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion.
In March, the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature passed Senate Bill 125, a nearly 300-page budget legislation. The next month, Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly signed it into law. A spokesperson for the governor’s office did not respond Internal Senior Ed Reason for requesting comments.
According to several lines on page 254, the Kansas Secretary of Administration must demonstrate that all state agencies, including universities and universities, eliminate all positions, policies, preferences, and activities “related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
SB 125 also specifically requested the secretariat to prove that the agency “removed gender identification pronouns or gender ideology from the email signature block of state employees [sic] Email accounts and any other form of communication. “The law cannot define DEI or gender ideology.
Kansas is not the first Republican-controlled legislature to pass non-financial public higher education clauses this year by inserting it into budget legislation. Among other things, after Indiana lawmakers require teachers to accept “productivity” comments and online syllabus, Ohio legislators stress that the trustee’s board of directors has “final, final authorization, approval or denial of any institution or modification of academic programs, courses, courses, courses, general education requirements and degree programs.”
Ross Marchand, program consultant for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, told Internal Advanced ED Kansas’ new law is unconstitutional.
“No one knows how to explain this, and it’s too broad,” Markand said. “These two issues are fatal to the First Amendment.”
The Kansas Board of Directors quoted the law and issued guidance in June directing universities to comply by the end of this month. On July 9, Kansas State University Provost Jesse Perez Mendez wrote to K-State’s campus, “All faculty, staff and university staff, including student employees, are requesting to review and update their signature barriers accordingly.”
On Tuesday, the University of Kansas Prime Minister, Provost and Chief Health Sciences Officer wrote to KU’s campus that “all employees should remove gender-identifying pronouns and personal pronoun series from their KU email signature blocks, web pages and Zoom/Zoom/Teams screen IDs and any other form of university communication to comply with the directive.”
Leaders also warned against trying to circumvent the ban.
“Your KU email account is the only official means of sending emails related to your work at the university,” they wrote. “Don’t use alternative third-party services such as Gmail for university business or dissemination.”
They told supervisors, “employees who have not complied with the new regulations by July 31 should remind you and the deadline.” They told supervisors to contact HR to know those who continue to refuse, while also telling KU community members “to consider submitting support and nursing referrals if they know students, staff or faculty who need help due to this new requirement.”
A KU spokesperson shared the university’s new policy prohibiting email signatures. While it broadly stated that it applies to “all employees and all branches that use ku.edu and kumc.edu email addresses,” it also said, “This policy does not apply to or limit or limit the academic freedom of teachers.”
KU undergraduate researcher Joseph Havens listed his/her list in his email signature, saying classmates were not satisfied with the order and are now adding pronouns to protest. He said he didn’t know how it would be resolved after July 31, but “I’m glad to see the show.”
Havens said the listed pronouns can help people avoid assumptions and help him personally avoid misunderstandings of the professor. “It seems to me that the university’s hands are likely to be associated with that,” he said. But “in many ways it feels like they agree with it.”
He said KU was “sorrying in some way.”
