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As classes wrap up for the summer, higher education professionals in Utah are reflecting on another tumultuous year for students and teachers in the Beehive State.

Tamara N. Stevenson, the vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at Westminster University, shares how anti-DEI laws — and three recent events — paint “a cautionary tale about what happens when colleges and universities are left guessing how to operate.”

“Utah and other states with similar laws set out to protect viewpoint diversity,” she writes. “What’s filling that space now isn’t neutrality. It’s silence. And silence doesn’t announce itself as censorship. It looks like an empty stage, a police-escorted visit and a list of prohibited words.”

Jay Jordan, a professor and the director of graduate studies in the Department of Writing & Rhetoric Studies at the University of Utah, writes that administrators are prioritizing “placating political leaders and corporatizing our work.”

“I’m well aware that higher education across the country is threatened by a combination of national policies and political rhetoric, uninformed legislative mandates, administrative bloat and mismanagement and creeping suspicion of expertise,” he writes. “But the pace of totally unwelcome and unwise changes here at the U. has been especially swift, and the changes have seriously undermined my confidence in the institution’s commitment and quality.”

For Maximilian Werner, another U. professor, the changes pushed him to accept another role out of state.

“I realized many years ago that universities are, despite their aspirations to the contrary, just as susceptible to baseness and folly as any other institution, but this past year has been the most demoralizing and sobering year of the 20 years I have taught here,” he writes. “It affected me in ways that I could not have predicted. Disillusioned doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel, and I am not alone. Notwithstanding the continued efforts on the part of students and faculty to oppose these changes, under the current leadership, things are only going to get worse.”

Stay tuned for more perspectives from educators across the state.

In the meantime, do you have a perspective you’d like to share on an issue impacting Utahns? Learn how you can share it in an op-ed or letter to the editor.

Utah Voices

Take a look at these op-eds and letters to the editor recently published in The Tribune:

What Utah can learn from its high-performing charter schools

The system holding Utah’s economy together is starting to crack

Grand Staircase-Escalante faces a new kind of threat in Congress

Why sex-based harassment is more common — and dismissed — in Utah

Fascism won’t save the Great Salt Lake

I know Utah’s homeless population — and how we can actually help them

Share Your Perspective

Over the past few weeks, several Utahns have shared their challenges in accessing affordable childcare. I want to hear from you: How are you being impacted by the childcare crisis? Tell me about your experiences, concerns and potential solutions.

I’m always looking for unique perspectives, ideas and solutions that move our state forward. Learn more about our guidelines for an op-ed, guest essay, letter to the editor and more here, and drop me a note at voices@sltrib.com.