Utah

Utah law targeting DEI leads university to close LGBT, women’s centers

Published

2 days ago

June 29, 2024

Utah law targeting DEI leads university to close LGBT, women’s centers

When Becket Harris started college at the University of Utah, the school’s LGBT center quickly became the most important spot on campus for her — a place where she studied, made friends and never had to worry about how people would react to learning she was transgender.

Harris, 20, was devastated to learn this week that the center is closing — along with one for students from underrepresented racial and religious communities and another for women — in response to a new state law that rolls back diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in public schools and universities.

“What am I going to do without my space on campus? How’s my friend group going to stay together?” said Harris, who finished her sophomore year this spring. “It’s attacking a space that’s very personal to me.”

Across Utah, public schools, universities and government agencies must make shifts to comply with the law, which goes into effect Monday. The state becomes the latest where Republican legislators have restricted DEI programs, amid a broader conservative effort to limit what is taught in schools and make diversity programs a flash point in the nation’s political debate.

Laws in other states have forced some universities to eliminate programs and jobs and, more commonly, to change hiring practices, such as ending requirements for diversity statements from job candidates. Some type of change to diversity requirements or programs has been made at 164 college campuses in 23 states since January 2023, according to a tally by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

At the University of Utah, administrators said they have had less than two months — the bill was passed in January, but the state higher education office’s guidance about how to comply with the law came down in May — to make final decisions about how to reorganize their staff and services. The school won’t lose its student services and will continue holding cultural events, but complying with the law will require a significant change in approach, administrators said.

“This definitely is having a profound impact,” said Lori McDonald, vice president for student affairs.

The Utah law labeled services for different communities — racial, ethnic, religious, gender-based or sexuality-based — as “discriminatory.”

Although it left their funding in place, it effectively directed schools to reorganize those services, such as mental health, career and scholarship help, under generalized campus centers catering to all students. Furthermore, the state’s guidance indicated those services couldn’t operate in centers that also did cultural programming.

At the University of Utah, school officials said that means closing its specialized centers in favor of two umbrella offices: one for all cultural programming and another for all student services. The school’s Division of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion has been eliminated. About 45 staff were affected, many of whom will be reassigned to the two new centers.

“This is not the path we would have chosen,” University Provost Mitzi Montoya wrote in a note to deans and faculty Thursday. “But … it is our calling to rise to the challenges of the day and find a better way forward.”

On Friday, a farewell was planned for the university’s LGBT Resource Center, which asked supporters to “join us to laugh, cry and celebrate” its 21-year run. An Instagram post advertising the goodbye party drew dozens of comments and broken-heart emojis.

“I’m starting school in the fall and am so upset this won’t be a resource for our community,” one person wrote. Another said, “Every single person in this building made me feel at home.”

Added a third, “I found support here [when] there was nowhere else.”

Along with the LGBT Resource Center, the university’s Women’s Resource Center and the Center for Equity and Student Belonging will close. Both the women’s center and the Center for Equity and Student Belonging, previously known as an ethnic student affairs center, had been in operation for more than 50 years, Montoya noted.

The law doesn’t mandate the closure of student centers, allowing them to stay open as cultural centers as long as they don’t also provide student services. Utah state Rep. Katy Hall (R), the bill’s House sponsor, said some universities had chosen to close centers “to better meet the goals” of the law.

The idea of leaving the centers open without providing the services they were created to house felt disingenuous, McDonald said, and university officials weren’t sure enough staff would be left to run them after some employees move to the student services center.

The university plans to keep its Black cultural center open; staff are working on how it will operate under the law as a gathering place, McDonald said. Those plans will have to be approved by the state, university officials said.

The law does not affect classroom instruction, academic freedom or academic research, the Utah System of Higher Education said in its guidance.

This spring, lawmakers in Alabama and Iowa passed similar bills to restrict DEI programs, and Wyoming removed state funding for the state university’s DEI office, forcing its closure. In mid-June, Republican members of Congress introduced a bill proposing to end all federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs and pull funding from government agencies, schools and others with DEI programs.

The law’s passage in Utah played to the more conservative wing of a divided Republican Party, said Michael Lyons, a political science professor at Utah State University. In an election year, Gov. Spencer Cox (R) and other GOP lawmakers faced the need to win over party delegates in Utah’s caucus-based nominating process.

“It’s not surprising to see them take very conservative positions,” he said.

Upon signing the bill, Cox said it offered a “balanced solution” by repurposing funding “to help all Utah students succeed regardless of their background.” His office did not respond to a request for comment from The Post this week.

Hall, the bill’s sponsor, said on the House floor that the measure came about because she had heard “serious concerns about the landscape at our higher education institutions” from “students and many professors.”

“I hope that students who benefited from these centers in the past know that the expectation is that they will still be able to receive the services and support that they need to succeed,” Hall told The Post.

Utah House Minority Leader Angela Romero (D) said she feared the bill would end up erasing people and identities, noting in a floor debate that she might not have succeeded at the University of Utah if not for the support of the ethnic students’ center. Free-speech advocates have also said such laws have a chilling and censoring effect on campuses.

Utah State University said this month it would reassign programs and clubs that had been housed under the school’s Inclusion Center and would ensure that its Latinx Cultural Center and a proposed Native American center comply with the law. The school said it would create a new center for community and cultural matters. Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, has closed its Division of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and identity-based centers and reorganized staff positions.

At the University of Utah, where staff members are still working out plans for the new centers, Harris, the student, remembered the LGBT center as a cozy place that made college much easier — and worried about what the changes might mean for future students.

“I could just walk into a space,” Harris said, “and I knew that everyone there was safe to talk to.”

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Utah

Garden within walls of Utah prison gives inmates unique chance to grow

Published

30 mins ago

July 1, 2024

Press Room

Garden within walls of Utah prison gives inmates unique chance to grow

SALT LAKE CITY — At the Utah State Correctional Facility, within the walls of confinement is a rare form of freedom…a vegetable garden.

“You name it, we have tomatoes, peppers, onion, garlic, kale. Kohlrabi, everything you see at the store plus more,” explained Todd Barszcz, the case manager for the prison’s program reentry program.

Cody Neilson, who is serving a life sentence, is one of the 32 prisoners who spends up to six hours a day tending to the plants growing within the walls.

“It’s freedom,” Neilson said. “When you’re here, you’re not in prison.”

The unique opportunity is part of the prison’s horticulture program that allows certain inmates to work while incarcerated.

“I will check them on our computer system, I’ll look to see when their last write-ups were,” Barszcz said. “You have to behave not only here, but back on your housing unit.”

The food grown is used in a different program for culinary arts at the prison, helping supply fresh produce.

“We grow specifically for them,” Barszcz explained. “So they’re not using prepackaged food and stuff like that. We’re able to provide them with fresh foods so they can get the most of the experience.”

To both those running the program and those participating, gardening is not only a privilege, it’s therapeutic.

“Coming out of max come to here I was diabetic, I was taking insulin, I was taking 11 meds a day,” Neilson said. “I don’t take nothing now.”

Inmates are paid a small amount for participating and can earn a certificate in the gardening industry but more importantly, it gives them a sense of purpose.

“It gives us something that we can give back to the public, you know, a little bit of, you know, we’re sorry, but I’m here, but let me try and do the best I can and make the best of our situation,” he said.

According to The Utah Department of Corrections, 96% of inmates at the prison are likely to be released at some point so experts say these “work and learn” opportunities are essential.

“When you start talking about doing rehabilitation and teaching and educating to reduce recidivism within the institution, so that when people are released, they are less likely to come back,” Barszcz said. “That’s kind of why I’m so proud is because this represents the potential of what we can do as a correctional facility.”

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Utah

FOX 13 Investigates: Utah soldier discharged after domestic violence charges

Published

8 hours ago

July 1, 2024

Press Room

FOX 13 Investigates: Utah soldier discharged after domestic violence charges

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah National Guard has discharged a soldier who has been convicted of domestic violence and related offenses and who was on recordings saying slurs and insults against presidents Obama and Biden, according to the man’s ex-wife and victim.

FOX 13 News has been reporting on the case of former Utah Army National Guard Sgt. 1st Class Christian Marx for more than 2 ½ years. In 2021, he was charged with assaulting his then-wife, Erica Lukes.

About three years after he was first charged with crimes, the Utah National Guard opted in February of this year to issue Marx a general discharge, according to Lukes, who said she was told such by her National Guard victim’s advocate. A Utah National Guard spokesman declined to confirm that to FOX 13.

It was a reversal for the National Guard. Spokesmen had previously said commanders were waiting on the civilian courts to adjudicate Marx’s charges.

“I definitely do question though, why [the discharge] has taken such a long time,” Lukes said in a recent interview with FOX 13.

A general discharge would allow Marx to keep his veteran’s benefits.

NEW COUNTS

Then in April, with other charges still pending, Marx was cited for domestic violence against a second woman, this time in Centerville. Days later, he was arrested again and charged with a felony for violation of a jail release order.

Marx would later tell a judge he went back to the woman’s apartment when she was not there to retrieve clothes, but the terms of his release for the previous domestic violence citation said he was to have no contact with the woman and to stay away from her residence.

Marx spent 34 days in the Davis County jail before he could secure his release. In May, he reached an agreement with prosecutors in Salt Lake City for the assaults against Lukes. Marx pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of domestic violence assault. A second count was dismissed.

The judge sentenced Marx to time served – even though those days he spent in jail were for a different victim.

Lukes said that’s not enough.

“I believe, without a doubt, my life is and will continue to be in danger as will be his latest victim,” Lukes told the judge at Marx’s sentencing hearing.

Marx assured the judge he would have no more contact with Lukes.

“If you do,” Third District Court Judge Barry Lawrence warned Marx, “and it comes back to me, then all bets are off and you’re going to spend a year in jail.”

Back in Davis County, on June 10, Marx reached another deal with prosecutors. The violation of the jail release agreement was reduced to a misdemeanor. Marx pleaded guilty.

Second District Judge Ronald Russell again gave Marx credit for the 34 days in jail – no additional incarceration. Marx must serve 18 months probation.

During the hearing, Marx apologized for violating the order and summarized his military service.

“I did two combat tours in Iraq; combat tour in Bagram,” he said.

“Thank you for your service,” Russell replied.

THREATS OF VIOLENCE

The Utah National Guard also declined a FOX 13 interview request to discuss its separation from Marx and public records requests seeking copies of its investigations into Marx.

Besides the criminal charges in civilian court, Lukes had supplied the national guard with recordings she made.

“That f___ing Sudanese ni____ and his f___ing white f___ing wigger tied our hands behind our backs,” Marx is heard on a recording Lukes made on Nov. 7, 2020, the same day the Associated Press called Joe Biden the winner of the U.S. presidential election. Marx was talking about his time as a soldier in Afghanistan.

“That f___ing needs to get f___ing executed,” Marx continued. “And his f___ing Biden f___ing bully — f___ing both of them f___ing ni_____.

“F___ing Biden. I f___ing hate his guts. If I ever see him, if I ever see him in person God forbid, God forbid, I am going to insult the president and beat the f___ out of him.”

Lukes made another recording on Nov. 13, 2020.

“I have no issues f___ing taking a gun and starting shooting,” Marx said, “start shooting left-wing mother f___ers at their rallies. No problem at all.”

According to documents, Meanwhile, Lawrence dismissed a felony gun possession charge against Marx. That count alleged Marx fired a pistol on the national guard range in 2021 after a protective order had been issued against him. Marx had pleaded not guilty.

The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office had said witnesses were on vacation or out of the country due to military deployments. Lawrence left open the chance for prosecutors to refile

the charge. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill told FOX 13 his office hasn’t yet determined if it will refile.

The dismissal was a blow to Lukes. She had hoped a felony conviction and a permanent loss of firearms rights that go with it would offer her additional protection.

“After the dismissal of the felony case,” Lukes said, “I literally couldn’t get out of bed for two weeks.”

“I feel more afraid for my life than I did back” when she was married to Marx, she said.

Through his attorney, Marx has declined interview with FOX 13.

Marx had pleaded not guilty to the domestic violence citation in Centerville Justice Court. That charge was dismissed Thursday but with a note saying – because he now has prior domestic violence convictions – the charge may be refiled in state court.

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Utah

Durzi signs 4-year extension with Utah

Published

15 hours ago

June 30, 2024

Press Room

By Eric Stephens, Chris Johnston and Pierre LeBrun

Having an aggressive first offseason following its relocation from Arizona as the Coyotes, Utah Hockey Club continued solidifying its defense corps by re-signing Sean Durzi to a four-year contract on Sunday.

The Athletic’s Chris Johnston reported Durzi’s extension coming in with an average value of $6 million. According to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, the 25-year-old Durzi will make $7.1 million next season, $5.6 million in 2025-26, $4.8 million in 2026-27 and $6.5 million in 2027-28. A 10-team no-trade clause will be in effect in the third and fourth years.

“We’re thrilled to have Sean in Utah with the team for the next four years,” Utah HC general manager Bill Armstrong said. “Sean is a reliable two-way defenseman who can anchor the power-play and provide offense from the blue line. He’s a young, highly skilled defenseman with an incredibly bright future, and we look forward to having him as a core player for this organization.”

DURZI RETURNS ✍️🩵
We have signed Sean Durzi to a four-year contract!#UtahHC pic.twitter.com/rXBdB0szg6
— Utah Hockey Club (@utahhockeyclub) June 30, 2024

Durzi led all Coyotes defensemen with nine goals, 32 assists and 41 points. Traded by the Los Angeles Kings last summer for a second-round pick in this year’s draft, the 2018 second-round choice by the Toronto Maple Leafs flourished in a top-four, big-minute role with the Coyotes after playing further down in the Kings’ defense lineup.

“I think I have much more to reach,” Durzi told The Athletic last October. “That’s always been my way of going about it. You always feel as if you can give more and I think that’s really, really important for myself. My ceiling is — I don’t know yet. I believe there’s so much more I can get better at. I’ve already learned so much more this year than I even thought I could learn. And that’s always how it is, what you do day in, day out. Can I get better in these areas?

“And that’s my goal. My goal is to be the complete player. A guy you can depend on whether you need a goal with a minute-30 left or whether you need one off the board with a minute-30 left. A guy who’s going to be able to fight for his teammates and put his heart on the line for the team every single night.”

Utah has been active at the start of Ryan Smith’s ownership of the club. Without any of its defensemen signed following the 2023-24 season, Utah and its loads of salary-cap space have reshaped the blue line by trading for Mikhail Sergachev (with J.J. Moser heading to Tampa Bay) and John Marino while bringing back Michael Kesselring and Juuso Välimäki on new contracts.

In re-signing Durzi to a major deal, Utah could enter next season with its new No. 1 defenseman in Sergachev and the right-shot Durzi as his likely partner on the top pair. Utah, which has been making a splash under Smith, still has what CapFriendly estimates is another $22 million available under the cap as free agency begins Monday.

GO DEEPER

Is Utah Hockey Club playoff-bound after adding Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino?

(Photo: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

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