A Texas foundation has petitioned the state district court to change the language on an endowment fund that provides graduate school scholarships to women studying biology, myRGV reported.
The University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley Foundation, a nonprofit that helps fund the public regional institution, believes that the current criteria for the Ruth and Katherine Dugger Endowment Fund are not in compliance with Texas’ recent anti-DEI bill, which prohibits student scholarships if they are awarded with regard to “race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.”
The organization has already paused awarding scholarships from the fund but needs a judge’s approval to permanently amend the endowment’s language to become gender neutral, because the original donors are deceased.
The petition was filed last month, but as of last week, a hearing hasn’t been scheduled.
UTRGV president Guy Bailey voiced support for the foundation’s actions.
“The proposed changes maintain the scholarship’s focus on graduate students in biology conducting field research on local flora and fauna,” he said.
It is not the first time a scholarship has run up against anti-DEI laws. Colleges in several other states, including Florida, Kentucky and Missouri, have adjusted DEI-related scholarships and programming based on laws that are either anticipated or already in place.
