UW confirms summer institute cancellation as Black 14 withdraw support
The Black 14 say the institute cannot continue without support for DEI. UW’s embattled diversity office announced the cancellation last month, citing the “current climate” surrounding DEI.
The Black 14 — UW Cowboys who were booted from the football team in 1969 for taking a stand against racism — have withdrawn from a University of Wyoming Summer Institute that bears their name.
The Black 14 wrote in a statement that their decision stems from the Wyoming Legislature’s attack on UW’s diversity efforts, and the precarious situation in which UW’s diversity office and diversity programs now find themselves.
“The Black 14 is immensely proud of the partnership with the University of Wyoming and our impact with the Black 14 Social Justice Summer Institute over the years,” the former players write. “However, the Black 14 Social Justice Summer Institute’s fundamental values and objectives are intricately tied to DEI. The program cannot effectively realize its mission without ample backing and a robust DEI department.”
This year’s summer institute has been canceled. It had been slated to take place in July.
The institute, first launched in 2022, invited high school students interested in social justice to spend a week and a half on the UW campus, developing “leadership, social justice, and diversity skills” while “fostering confidence, personal ethics, and advocacy.”
Members of the Black 14 actively took part in, and campaigned for, the institute.
The Wyoming Legislature defunded UW’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion this year, reducing the university’s state block grant by $1.7 million. While the summer institute itself was not defunded, the legislative attack on DEI has caused uncertainty and threatened the future viability of such programs.
The summer institute will not take place without the Black 14’s involvement, the university confirmed Friday in a campus wide communication.
“Even with the loss of funding for the DEI office from our state block grant, we were hopeful that we could find a way forward to continue the Black 14 Social Justice Summer Institute — just as we’re working to continue supporting all of our UW communities,” UW President Ed Seidel writes. “However, the participation of the Black 14 is essential to have a meaningful experience for students, and that isn’t possible now. Still, we’ll continue to look for ways to partner with the Black 14, and we’re hopeful they may reconsider at some point in the future.”
The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion announced the institute’s cancellation last month.
“At this time, the University of Wyoming is navigating the results of the recent Wyoming Legislature budgetary session,” stated a notice on the now-deleted summer institute’s webpage. “As UW reorganizes itself, we’ve made the difficult decision that this current climate would not be conducive to an effective social justice institute. We hope that these efforts may be able to continue in the future.”
Shortly after the Laramie Reporter covered that cancellation, UW published a news release saying the university had not yet made a final decision. The communication today, however, confirms that cancellation.
UW leadership is scheduled to decide the future of the DEI office, and the university’s other diversity efforts, during a Board of Trustees meeting this week.
UW could shutter the office entirely, rename and rework the existing unit, or redistribute its responsibilities to other units that don’t bear the name “diversity.” Alternatively, UW could commit to securing outside, private funding for the office, thereby eliminating any need to justify the office or its functions to the Wyoming Legislature.
During this year’s legislative session, state senators added footnotes to UW’s portion of the state budget taking aim at allegedly “woke” programming at UW. These footnotes forbid UW from using state funds to support a DEI office or DEI efforts more generally. There was another footnote axing gender studies courses, but this was eliminated during the conference phase when the House and the Senate hammered out a unified budget bill.
The footnote regarding DEI remained and was included in the budget bill sent to the governor’s desk.
At the last major UW Board of Trustees meeting in March — as the campus community awaited Gov. Mark Gordon’s final decision on that footnote — more than a hundred faculty, staff and students turned out to voice their support for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Gordon ultimately vetoed part of the footnote but left the rest intact, such that UW was indeed forbidden from funding its DEI office with state funds but was still free to use those state funds to support diversity programs more generally.
The Black 14 cited the Legislature’s attack on DEI as the central reason they would not be participating in a summer institute this year.
“The recent decision by the Wyoming Government to revoke funding for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives not only erodes the legacy of the Black 14 and the efforts of the University of Wyoming but also sets a concerning precedent for DEI initiatives nationwide,” they write. “DEI initiatives are crucial for creating a safe and welcoming environment for all students. It is imperative that universities prioritize these initiatives to ensure that every student feels valued and supported.”
The Black 14 statement adds that universities “risk alienating marginalized communities and hindering the progress of their students” without proper funding for DEI.
“The experiences and perspectives of individuals from different backgrounds enrich our communities and enable us to create a more comprehensive understanding of the world,” they write. “The Black 14 firmly believes that everyone deserves equal treatment and opportunities, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or other characteristics.”
In 1969, the Black 14 were booted from the UW Cowboys football team for requesting to wear armbands during an upcoming game against Brigham Young University. BYU is affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which maintained a racist policy of banning Black members from full church membership until 1978.
UW issued an official apology in 2019, a half-century after the event.
The summer institute was privately funded through online crowdsourcing.