The University of Alaska Board of Regents introduced proposed changes Friday to the university’s antidiscrimination policy around hiring and recruitment, including removing mentions of affirmative action from the board’s personnel policy.
Affirmative action includes programs and policies that aim to support populations that have historically been underserved.
UA General Counsel Wayne Mowery said the change is due to a January executive order from the Trump administration ending affirmative action. He said guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor stated federal contractors should also end their affirmative action programs.
“We’ve done that, and now we’re adjusting policy to account for those changes,” Mowery said. “So the changes largely consist of making it clear that our hiring practices are based on equal opportunity and equal access, and removing the specific legal term affirmative action.”
The change also removes mention of specific groups of people that have been historically underrepresented. Mowery said those groups are included in the university’s nondiscrimination statement. The university changed the wording of the nondiscrimination statement in February to delete mentions of affirmative action, diversity, equity and inclusion.
Regent Ralph Seekins brought up the idea of a simpler nondiscrimination statement instead, but Mowery said he didn’t include changes to the nondiscrimination statement in the proposal.
“We also wanted to recognize the history that was involved here,” Mowery said. “And so we tried not to change where we didn’t need to change to comply with what Department of Labor was indicating their enforcement strategies would be.”
The proposal comes as the Trump administration has put more than $63 million of the university system’s federal grants into limbo or canceled them, according to areportfrom the university’s federal relations team.
UA President Pat Pitney said the university has time to look ahead to other opportunities if it loses more federal funding in the long run.
“We’re eyeing the risks, we’re preparing, we’re putting mitigation strategies in place, but we want the bulk of our effort in taking advantage of the opportunities we have,” she said.
Two people spoke directly to this proposal during an hourlong public testimony period held days before the meeting. University of Alaska Anchorage Mary Dallas Allen chairs the masters of social work program and voiced her concerns the changes would not protect people from discrimination.
UAA professor and UA Faculty Alliance Chair Jackie Cason testified and asked the board to consider the alliance’s perspective. She added the lack of testimony might be because of how the board made past decisions. The board was previously criticized for lack of transparency when it approved a motion to scrub mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion without taking in public input.
“Maybe some of the reason why the public testimony is silent today is that people have lost some faith and hope that their input really matters in the decisions that the board makes and that the leadership at the campus makes,” she said.
The board is expected to vote on the changes at its next meeting on Nov. 6-7.
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