Woodburn Hall on the campus of West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. (Photo by Lexi Browning/West Virginia Watch)
West Virginia University will merge the university’s standalone Black Culture and LBGTQ+ Centers into a new center that will continue to provide these supportive services to students.
The campus change follows that of Gov. Patrick Morrisey Ban on diversity, equity and inclusion practices for institutions receiving federal funding.
Shauna Johnson, WVU’s executive director of strategic communications, said that with new leadership at the university Tthe WVU Student Life Department”has made organizational changes to better align its resources and teams with the changing needs of students.”
The Center for Black Culture and the LGBTQ+ Center will be merged into the new Center for Community Connections.
Johnson said arts and entertainment programs, Greek Life, the Student Involvement and Leadership Center and the new Center for Community Connections will fall under Student Engagement and Leadership moving forward.
“These changes are intended to foster greater collaboration and more effectively support student engagement, well-being and success. There is no intent to reduce staffing levels as a result of this transition,” Johnson said. “Furthermore, this realignment does not represent a reduction in program offerings, as Student Life will continue to provide every student with the support they need.”
WVU Student Body Vice President Rozaireo Jones said: “Student engagement and leadership have been at the heart of student activities, organizations and services at WVU for decades.”
“ [The Student Government Association] is excited to see how this unification of resources can serve a more diverse student population and transform the development of more student leaders on the WVU campus,” he continued.
Last year, WVU closed its diversity, equity and inclusion department follows Morrisey’s Implementing regulation Ban DEI.
The acronym DEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion policies aimed at promoting equality in government and the workplace. Morrisey, a Republican, said last year that the guidelines can grant “special preferences that unlawfully benefit one group over another” based on race, age, ethnicity and more.
WVU opened a new unit, the Department of Campus Engagement and Compliance, with a “redefined mission,” according to a memo distributed around campus.
Along with Morrisey’s anti-DEI order, the Trump administration banned DEI on college campuses, saying ongoing diversity initiatives could jeopardize federal funding for universities.
President Donald Trump’s rollback of DEI faced legal challenges, and a judge blocked the DEI ban for all federally funded institutions in February. A federal appeals court lifted this injunctionthat the order was unlikely to violate the Constitution.
