Two Tarrant County college trustees have held “rogue staff” accountable for continuing to mandate DEI training after a state law banning such practices went into effect.
Tarrant County College Trustee Laura Pritchett posted that taxpayers and elected officials recently informed her that the college was still mandating diversity training for faculty and staff.
Senate Bill 17 explicitly prohibits mandatory diversity, equity, and inclusion training in public institutions of higher education.
“Upon receiving notification from taxpayers and legislators that TCCD was mandating DEI training, as per protocol I contacted Chancellor LeBlanc,” said Pritchett. “Trustees have the obligation and duty to safeguard the College in all aspects of oversight. During a scheduled meeting over budget matters, I presented the prohibited mandatory training material and conveyed the seriousness of the allegation of non-compliance to Senate Bill 17 (SB17) to the chancellor, thus propelling the chancellor to action.”
After Pritchett and trustee Shannon Wood informed the chancellor that non-compliance with SB 17 was “unacceptable,” Pritchett wrote that the chancellor “agreed that the actions by rogue staff [are] not to be tolerated.”
“The mandated training modules included ‘What is Diversity?’, ‘Characteristics of Diversity’, and ‘Valuing vs. Ignoring Diversity,’” said Pritchett. “It is clear that mandatory EEO training materials from the spring of 2024, which was approved by the Administration, were never brought into compliance with SB17, and the training remained out of compliance in August 2024.”
Pritchett said she also told the chancellor that a violation of SB 17 could jeopardize state funding, have negative effects on the college’s enrollment, and compromise its standing in the community.
“[The chancellor] took action to address this violation of SB17 by holding staff accountable and self-reporting the incident to the state,” Pritchett wrote on Facebook. “We must and will protect the College, its students, staff, faculty and taxpayers as we continue to educate and prepare our students for success.”
