West Virginia HBCU’s say no charges in works under Morrisey’s DEI cease and desist

Flanked by state lawmakers in an auditorium last month, Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed a law to stamp out what he called “that woke virus that’s invaded West Virginia.”

Since day one, the governor has purged state government of policies promoting fair and full participation of all people — particularly those historically excluded. He has demonized diversity, equity and inclusion practices as “DEI.”

At West Virginia’s other universities, officials quickly closed diversity offices, changed job titles and removed statements from websites.

“DEI is dead in the Mountain State,” Morrisey said. The crowd applauded.

But months earlier, both of the state’s historical Black universities said they would not change. No offices closed. No job titles altered. No statements removed.

Both were founded when the state’s universities did not allow Black students.

West Virginia State University serves a diverse student body, wrote the university’s general counsel, and “remains committed to its historical mission of academic excellence, equity, and opportunity.”

Bluefield State University — the state’s other historically Black university — also told the governor that it has never had a “DEI” office that could be eliminated.

Black universities never needed DEI

The Morrill Land Grant Act, passed during the Civil War, allowed states to pay for the creation of universities. But in many states, particularly former Confederate states, officials barred Black students from the nation’s fledgling higher education system.

Nearly thirty years later, Congress came back and ordered West Virginia and others to either open their universities to Black students or create separate colleges.

At this time, West Virginia State and Bluefield State were founded and would be the only place where Black West Virginians could get an education for decades.

The 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision outlawed school segregation across the country. Since then, “Bluefield State continued its commitment to the higher education of first-generation, low-income and marginalized individuals and attracted students and employees, regardless of race or other classification,” General Counsel Brent Benjamin wrote in a letter.

The university has never had diversity training, policies or a dedicated office like the ones Morrisey banned, he wrote.

“Bluefield State follows the principles of equal opportunity and merit,” the lawyer wrote.

Spokesperson Drew Galang said the governor expects all universities to comply with his executive order. Galang did not identify any concerns with the current programs at West Virginia State and Bluefield State, and said Morrisey “recognizes the historical mission” of the Black universities.

Historically Black universities like West Virginia State and Bluefield State have a long history of serving Black students because of discrimination at other universities, said Marybeth Gasman, an education professor at Rutgers University. But they also serve white students, Latino students, Asian students and international students.

Today, university leaders argue that they have not participated in diversity, equity and inclusion practices. But many support the underlying principle that everyone should have equal access to education, she said.

“They’re walking sort of a fine line here,” she said.

Both West Virginia universities are now majority-white, with minority students making up less than a quarter of the student body at each university. Students are mostly from in-state. More than half of the freshman class at each qualified for federal low-income student aid in 2024.

“When it comes to diversity and inclusiveness, that’s really baked into who we are as an institution as part of our DNA,” Ericke Cage, president of West Virginia State University, told Inside Higher Ed earlier this year.

“At our very core, we are all about being a highly inclusive institution where any student, regardless of their background, can come and get a good-quality education.”

Historically white institutions change to comply

Black universities were founded to include more people in higher education, said Felecia Commodore, an education professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They’ve never been exclusionary, so they haven’t really needed diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

“Historically white institutions have had to engage in diversity, equity and inclusion reform to remedy the discriminatory practices they had at their foundation,” she said.

The governor asked state lawmakers to codify his ban on diversity initiatives into law. In mid-April, they passed a ban on universities having diversity officers, hiring preferences based on diversity or requiring diversity training.

The bill exempts academic courses, research and student organizations. Engineering opportunities for women, single-sex sports or bathrooms and efforts to prevent sexual harassment are also among the exemptions.

To comply, the state’s flagship West Virginia University closed its Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — which the governor called “a big win.”

At WVU and other universities across the state, administrators have changed titles, removed statements from websites and ended diversity training.

At Marshall, the Women’s and Gender Center is now the Women’s Center. The Division of Intercultural and Student Affairs is now the Division of Student Affairs.

At the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine, officials removed “multicultural” and “equal opportunity” from jobs titles, struck a diversity statement from its website and discontinued a committee whose work the school had promoted just years earlier.

Diversity bans at the state and federal level have often been vaguely wrapped in rhetoric about preventing racial discrimination, said Commodore. Universities have hastily interpreted these laws.

“We have this blanket term that has no definition,” she said. “Which leaves a lot of leeway for it to be interpreted however folks want.”