Johnson County Community College (JCCC) recently made headlines by announcing the closing of its Office of Inclusion and Belonging soon after receiving the “Dear Colleague Letter” from the U.S. Department of Education reiterating its opposition to racial discrimination under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The letter included a veiled threat to educational institutions at all levels that non-compliance with Title VI could threaten federal funding.
However, The Sentinel has obtained the audio of a recent Zoom staff call made days after the February 28th closing of the office. In that call, Shelli Allen, Vice-President of Student Services, eases concerns among her audience about the message they received from JCCC President Dr. Judy Korb:
JCCC Colleagues —
You may already be aware of recent federal requirements that call for the elimination of DEI and race-based considerations in federally-funded educational institutions — a category that includes JCCC.
While there is lingering uncertainty around the full impact, JCCC will comply with all federal requirements and ensure our admissions, hiring, resource allocations and scholarships are not out of compliance. Failure to comply could risk federal financial aid funding for our students, and that is not an option. To clear up any confusion about the work that we do at JCCC, it is in our best interest to disband the Office of Inclusion and Belonging, effective immediately.
Our response was not decided lightly, and it does not change our mission, our vision, or our values. JCCC will comply with the law while maintaining an environment where all students, faculty and staff are welcome, respected and supported. We will focus on those actions that create a positive environment rather than on labels or words that could be misconstrued.
As an open access institution, we must continue to do all we can to be a great choice for each student who comes to JCCC, and we remain committed to investing in our students’ success.
I know you have questions – we all do. As we shaped our response, we worked with our Board of Trustees and our administration. We will share additional information as it becomes available and will offer appropriate opportunities for dialogue as we work through these changes together.\
Judy Korb, PhD
JCCC Interim President
“We have not put an end to inclusion and belonging efforts”, Allen began. “The reason for the disbanding of the office was that there is called a “Dear Colleague Letter” which is when one of the departments in the federal government sends out a letter that says basically, hey, this is how we’re interpreting this law, and if you’re in violation of it, this is how we’re going to handle it. And so we got the letter February 14th and we were told that by February 28th if you had anything related to diversity, equity, or inclusion out there, people were to enter it on the ed.gov portal and rat out your colleagues for trying to include others.
“So, we’ve taken the website down. We’re not going to have the office. We still have two people. One of them is responsible for workplace belonging and the other is responsible for student belonging, and we are taking those people and moving them into departments. And so the student person will come to us, the workplace person will come to HR, the work will continue.
“And so if you look at their job descriptions, the things in their job descriptions really were about belonging and including, and those are still things we hope to do. I don’t want to work for an organization that doesn’t want to include me or treats me like I don’t belong. So, we’re going to continue that work and wanted to make sure you guys know that. Because I know that there were probably a lot of people who were surprised by the message or had opinions about the message. There has been conversation with the people who formed the DEI task force prior to my arrival here, and so they’re aware of that.
“One of the things they talked about were rumors about things that are going away; we can’t have Trans Day of Coming Out, we can’t have Affinity Graduations; none of that is true. There’s been no decision made not to do any of the things that we already do. We still plan to have all of the things that we would have done at any other time, and this will not have any effect on what’s happening in the classroom. So, academic freedom is still a core tenant of postsecondary education, and we still plan to allow our faculty to teach what they like.”
Former JCCC professor Frank Syracuse laments the decision of the school:
“What a poor example the administration is to our students. Keeping DEI after announcing they were ending it is a lie, no different than cheating. Students have consequences for cheating, but the administration is basically saying: ‘just don’t get caught’.”
We reached out to JCCC, and its board of directors and asked if the reassignment of personnel followed the spirit of the Department of Education’s letter reiterating its opposition to violations of Title VI and if the college had any concerns about a potential loss of federal funding by virtue of their maneuver to close its DEI Office, but keep its personnel and mission:
“JCCC does not discriminate on the basis of race, neither prior to nor after the release of the U.S. Department of Education’s February 14th “Dear Colleague” letter. As a college we are still committed to creating an environment where all students and employees are welcome and supported.
