Gov. Mark Gordon (R-WY) vetoed part of the Wyoming budget Saturday, protecting diversity, equity, and inclusion programming at the University of Wyoming.
While Gordon protected the programming, he decided to keep the legislative language defunding the DEI office at the school.
The bill sent to Gordon’s desk stripped the school of $1.73 million, cut from a total appropriation of $503.7 million, but the Wyoming Republican vetoed a provision that would have blocked the school from implementing DEI ideology in programming. The move ensured the university could use its approved budget to implement DEI without having a dedicated office for it.
In a letter to Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Gordon said the reason he maintained the school’s ability to pursue DEI is that some federal grants are contingent on a dedication to the ideology.
“Without this targeted veto, the Legislature will have inadvertently put millions of dollars of federal grants that regularly flow to the University at risk,” he said, according to the Cowboy State Daily. “These grant-required inclusion efforts are much broader than LBGTQ+ or others that our Legislature may believe are the only populations for which inclusion efforts are intended.”
Gordon explained some of the inclusion efforts are targeted toward disabled persons, veterans, and Native Americans.
“Clearly, Wyoming need not pursue any ‘woke’ agenda, and I have encouraged the university to drop such nonsense,” he said.
After the bill was signed into law with the partial removal of a DEI ban, the university released a statement saying it would appoint a working group made up of staff, students, and faculty to determine which programs could be affected by the legislation.
“We certainly will continue to value and serve students, employees and community members of all genders, ethnicities and backgrounds, and work to make everyone feel welcome,” university President Ed Seidel said in the statement. “But the message from lawmakers, regardless of the welcomed line-item veto from the Governor, is that our DEI efforts must change, and discussions are underway to determine the best path forward.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Gordon’s half-veto comes after Republicans in multiple states have either passed or are eyeing DEI bans at their state universities. Recently, Gov. Kay Ivey (R-AL) signed a sweeping ban into law, while lawmakers in Kansas have advanced similar proposals despite the Sunflower State’s governor, Laura Kelly, being a Democrat.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Gordon’s office for comment.
