In Education

‘I Didn’t Think It Would Be This Quick’: Another Florida School Terminates Its Chief Diversity Official

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A public college in Florida will axe a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion administrative position at the end of the semester, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported.

State College of Florida (SCF) terminated Dr. Brenda Pinkney, current DEI director and tenured faculty member, because it will not renew the position in June, Pinkney told the Herald-Tribune on Thursday. The decision was reportedly made earlier this week, and Pinkney speculates that it was made in response to legislative efforts to crack down on DEI presence on college campuses in the Sunshine State.

The Florida Legislature is currently considering a bill that would upend higher education through several different reforms, including ridding state colleges and universities of DEI majors, minors, activities and programs, according to its text. House Bill 999 is currently in the state House of Representatives before the Education & Employment Committee.

“Once the bill was introduced I started to wonder how the college was going to handle me … I thought it would be quick, but I didn’t think it would be this quick,” Pinkney told the Herald-Tribune. “It has been heart-wrenching watching and waiting. I’m disappointed, but it is what it is. The decision has been made.”

Pinkney worked at the university for almost forty years after being hired in July 1984, the Herald-Tribune reported. She was appointed to her current position in October 2020, but was recently told by university officials that there was no more funding for her role.

“As a standard practice and out of respect for our employees, we do not publicly discuss their performance, employment, or contracts,” Jamie Smith, SCF associate vice president of communications, told the Herald-Tribune.

SFC is not the first school to begin trimming its DEI presence on campus. New College of Florida (NCF) Interim President Richard Corcoran terminated its chief diversity officer earlier this month after the Board of Trustees voted in February to rid its Office of Outreach and Inclusive Excellence.

The four NCF employees were supposed to be given alternative roles at the college. It is similarly unclear why the offer was not provided to Pinkney, according to the Herald-Tribune.

“Unfortunately, it’s the times in which we live in … it’s history repeating itself,” Pinkney told the Herald-Tribune.

SCF and Pinkney did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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One Comment

  1. Thank God for De Santis and Florida which is one of the few states actively fighting this “woke” nonsense. Now unbelievably, the NAACP has issued a “travel advisory” for Florida. You can’t make this stuff up! The states need to bring Biden’s illegal DEI executive order to the Supreme Court. This illegal order mandates DEI hiring in every government agency and office in the country. The Democrat’s and Biden’s perverse idea of Diversity (anti-white), Equity (equal outcomes/Socialism), and Inclusion (trans rights) are the worst government policies ever instituted and are blatantly illegal because they violate all our civil rights laws that say there can be no discrimination based on “race, sex, or national origin”. They are bringing about illegal Federal and even private company policies that call for hiring whites last and firing them first. Not to mention they are destroying the foundational principle of America as a “Meritocracy” where anyone can advance based on their qualifications and merit; not based on their skin color, their sex, or their sexual “identity”.

    We can clearly see the incompetence this DEI “mantra” has caused in our government with the likes of Biden’s “diversity” hires for VP, our Transportation Secretary, the trans fake Admiral who is the highest “officer” in our Health and Human Services Dept. and, of course, the former non-binary idiot who was in charge of our nuclear waste disposal who got fired and arrested for stealing women’s luggage from airport carousels. What do you think is going to happen when our Pilots and Doctors and Judges are all hired on the basis of their race or sexual identity instead of their ability?

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