AUSTIN, Texas – In this edition of Texas: The Issue Is, the issue is the DEI purge pushback. 

Since January, when SB 17 took effect, college administrators all across Texas have been shutting down diversity, equity and inclusion programs. 

In response to that, members of a faculty labor union rallied at the University of Texas here in Austin, calling on school leaders to stop the rollback. 

FOX 7 Austin’s Rudy Koski spoke to two members about why they believe some form of DEI should remain on every campus. 

PAULINE STRONG: I would like the university to restore the programs that were lost. I believe they were lost to please political forces in the state. 

KARMA CHAVEZ: I never understood what people were saying about what was wrong with it, because all we’re trying to do is make a better campus for more students. 

RUDY KOSKI: There are some programs that are viewed to be divisive, where we start breaking people up into compartments. You’re in this tribe, you’re in this tribe, you’re in this tribe. Do you feel that we can move away from that? 

KARMA CHAVEZ: Well, it’s not a either or. So, there’s got to be space for people who come from marginalized backgrounds to have their own space to represent their cultures, to just feel comfortable. A campus like this, it can be really hard if you’re a student of color, for example. And so it’s nice to have spaces that are meant for you.

RUDY KOSKI: DEI has become a four-letter word. Can the concept be rebooted and do you think it could be less divisive? 

PAULINE STRONG: We are a diverse group of people, so diversity is already here. Equity and inclusion are not. We need to keep working at equity and inclusion, and we need to acknowledge how many different kinds of people we have in Texas, how many different kinds of students we have. And we need to work to support each other. And we need staff who help us do that as well. 

RUDY KOSKI: There are people who will say, Texas already is doing that. We recognize we’re diverse, and we recognize people should be treated fairly. Why do we need DEI? 

PAULINE STRONG: I don’t see that happening outside of DEI. I see the purge of staff who had decades of experience, many of them, working with students to help them succeed. I think that purge shows that we’re not doing what we need to be doing. 

RUDY KOSKI: But at the expense of another race, because that was the argument against DEI was that we’re lifting up one group, pushing down another. 

PAULINE STRONG: I don’t think anything about DEI pushes down another group. It is lifting up people who have been marginalized, people whose parents and grandparents did not have the chance to go to college. It is uplifting us all. 

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RUDY KOSKI: Don’t we already have these protections in place? Affirmative action, discrimination laws? 

KARMA CHAVEZ: I mean, well, we don’t really have affirmative action anymore. That’s pretty much been thrown out the window. You know, discrimination is about a very kind of particular legal definition. And it doesn’t get at, for example, microaggressions and the kind of little things that happen to students on the day to day, that make being on a campus like this really hard, and all DEI was, was a Band-Aid to try to make life a little bit better for folks. 

RUDY KOSKI: So how do we reboot this? How do we come together, especially during these times? 

KARMA CHAVEZ: Yeah. I mean, I think we need people to come together in earnestness. So not, just to prove that my point is right, for you to prove that your point is right, but really, to hear each other. 

(The Center Square) – Over the last few days, city and county officials are responding to what appears to be “the largest opioid overdose outbreak” in Austin and Travis County, Travis County Judge Andy Brown said at a news conference.

Austin Police Department Assistant Chief Eric Fitzgerald said police officers and emergency personnel reduced an untold number of deaths, saying, “there is a deadly batch of illicit narcotics in our community. Our intent … is to find those persons responsible and hold them accountable.”

Lt. Patrick Eastlick with the APD’s narcotics unit said two persons of interest were detained and one was arrested for felony possession of a firearm. An investigation is ongoing into the source of where the drugs came from. “Anyone found responsible for distributing the suspected fentanyl faces potential charges of murder or manufactured delivery of controlled substance causing death or serious bodily injury,” he said.

Last year, the Texas legislature passed a bill that Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law changing state law to classify fentanyl poisoning as murder, require death certificates to state cause of death related to fentanyl poisonings, expand distribution of Narcan, among other measures.

So far, the APD has filed five charges related to fentanyl overdose deaths, Eastlick said.

Austin-Travis County EMS Assistant Chief Steve White said emergency personnel initially responded to calls in the downtown area Monday morning, which later spread throughout the city. Emergency teams were deployed to quickly distribute Narcan rescue kits.

Within a 24-hour period, they responded to over 51 suspected overdoses with many individuals in cardiac arrest. Four people were first reported dead.

“We have not experienced overdoses of this volume since 2015, when K2 struck our community,” White said, referring to synthetic marijuana. EMS usually gets an average of two to three calls a day, but responded to over 50 calls after the outbreak began, “well over a thousand percent increase.”

In a separate press announcement, Dr. Angela Carr with Travis County EMS said as of 6 pm on Thursday, Austin Travis County EMS had responded to 75 suspected overdoses. So far, more than 400 doses of Narcan have been distributed to affected areas.

Brown said they had to wait until the toxicology reports were completed but they were investigating “eight deaths as suspicious.”

The current death total is nine, according to a county spokesperson. “Preliminary toxicology reports indicated the presence of fentanyl in nine cases, cocaine in eight and methamphetamine in three, the American-Statesman reported.

Brown said emergency personnel saved dozens of lives by administering Narcan, a drug that reverses opioid overdoses if administered quickly enough. Information about where Texans can obtain Narcan can be found here and at Txcope.org.

“Drug overdose deaths continue to be the number one cause of non-accidental deaths in Travis County,” Brown said. In 2022, Travis County commissioners declared the county’s overdose epidemic as a public health crisis.

In March, White spoke at an Austin City Council meeting on public safety saying, “Travis County now has twice as many opiate overdose deaths than any other county in Texas, per capita.” He explained the scope of the “severe increase” in opioid overdoses, saying they averaged roughly 100 a month at the time.

Last year, while the legislature was in session, Texas Department of Public Safety troopers seized half a million lethal doses of fentanyl in Austin, The Center Square reported. They also seized other narcotics, weapons, ammunition, and several stolen vehicles in a bust that was part of a DPS Austin Violent Crimes Task Force operation assisting the APD.

Violent crime and fentanyl overdoses have increased in the state capital since the Austin City Council voted to defund the APD in 2020. Efforts by voters to increase APD funding and reverse the city council’s actions failed in 2021. After losing a significant number of APD’s force, the number of homicides in Austin spiked, APD was no longer able to respond quickly to 911 calls, street takeovers got out of control, a machete crime spree ensued among other violent crimes being reported.

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In response, Gov. Abbott took action, creating task forces and surging additional resources, including directing DPS troopers to provide long-term assistance to APD. He also worked with the Texas legislature to implement measures to prevent municipalities from defunding the police in the future, The Center Square reported.

“Overdose deaths are completely preventable and everyone in Travis County should be aware and prepared to respond to an overdose incident,” Brown said. “Everyone should carry Narcan and know how to respond to an overdose. I carry a dose of it in my computer bag.”