Alabama anti-DEI law shuts Black Student Union office, queer resource center at flagship university

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — There was one major deciding factor in Cierra Gilliam’s decision about where to go to college.

When she toured the University of Alabama’s flagship campus in Tuscaloosa, her guide took her to the Black Student Union office on the first floor of the student center. Gilliam said there were Black students there offering resources for trips to and from the airport, as well as hair salons in Tuscaloosa that could style Black hair, and insights about what it was like to live at a predominantly white institution.

Gilliam said that the Black Student Union’s visible presence on campus was one of the main reasons that her parents let her go to school a nine-hour drive away in an unfamiliar state.

Last week, however, at the outset of her senior year, the Black Student Union announced that the group would no longer have a designated place on campus, in compliance with recent statewide legislation that prohibits public universities and state agencies from allocating resources to diversity equity and inclusion programs –- often referred to as DEI.

“It feels terrible, like there is no place to go,” Gilliam said. “They ripped all the signage and things down, and there is nothing left.”

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