AUSTIN, Texas — Victoria Uriostegui works with Rooted, a collective made up of approximately 10 organizers that provides support for immigrant students at the University of Texas at Austin.

What You Need To Know

  • On April 2, the University of Texas at Austin notified several student organizations they will be permanently shut down by early July, in compliance with SB 17 and institutional DEI policies

  • Senate Bill 17, passed last year, bans student groups with ties to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or that give preferential treatment based on race, color or ethnicity

  • Students leaders from the recently terminated Monarch Program and Women's Community Center said they should have been exempt from termination, and are still seeking answers from the university

  • More than 60 UT employees who no longer had DEI-related job titles were laid off last month, according to the Texas American Association of University Professors and the Texas National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

She said the group is struggling to meet student demands after the university terminated several on-campus organizations earlier this month in compliance with recent, restrictive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies.

“The university, we were proud to be admitted to, kind of turned their back on us and took away our support services, our staff that helped us feel more welcome at this university,” she said.

Rooted worked closely with the Monarch program in 2023 to provide resources for students of undocumented status and mixed-status families. But, unlike the Monarch program, Rooted is not backed by university funding, making it exempt from Senate Bill 17. 

Monarch was one of several programs within the university’s former Division of Campus and Community Engagement, which UT Austin President Jay Hartzell announced on April 2 will permanently shut down by early July. These organizational changes supplemented Hartzell’s initial implementation of SB 17 in December. Per Senate Bill 17, any departments or employees with “diversity,” “equity” and “inclusion,” or that promote “differential treatment” or “special benefits to individuals based on race, color, or ethnicity,” are not permitted.

Uriostegui said UT Austin’s attempts to eliminate DEI extend beyond the established legal parameters.

“SB 17 does not include undocumented students,” Uriostegui said. “Even so the Monarch program did not provide programming or services that were exclusive to race or gender, so if we read by the law, the Monarch program was not supposed to be discontinued.”

Jocie Sobieraj was a graduate assistant at Monarch from the fall of 2020 to the summer of 2022. She said the group’s main objective was to create a center, similar to the Gender and Sexuality Center and Multicultural Engagement Center on campus, which were among the first university-sponsored entities to be shut down in compliance with SB 17.

Sobieraj said Monarch secured university funding in 2023, but its proposal for the center was denied.

“This was before SB 17 was passed, but there was already stress from the administration… and the Legislature. And, you know, Governor Abbott's feelings about undocumented folks,” she said.

Sobieraj is now an academic and career adviser at the University of Massachusetts but continues to support UT students by working with Rooted remotely. Soberiaj said she has kept in touch with her former colleagues, several of whom were among the estimated 60 UT employees laid off last month.

“I would say 95% of the people I considered friends at UT now don't have jobs, or won't have jobs starting July 10th,” she said.

The Gender and Sexuality Center was replaced by the Women’s Community Center with the approval of the UT administration in January. However, after a semester of serving students, the WCC was notified on April 2, along with the DDCE, that it would be permanently shut down.

WCC Student Staffer Gowri Kamma said the center carried out numerous changes last fall to comply with SB 17. She said only a few resources from the GSC survived after eliminating all services that may be viewed as being exclusive of specific groups.

“Every student of all genders, all sexualities, all backgrounds can benefit from getting medical and health checkups… using menstrual and sexual health products, everyone can do that. So all those things that made us a DEI center weren't included in the new plan for the WCC and that's why the admin approved it,” she said.

Kamma said they have reached out to UT administration asking why they were shut down despite the WCC’s approval a few months prior, but they haven’t heard back. 

“The only reason I can think of personally, and again this is my personal opinion, is because people have just associated the center —  regardless of how many changes we make and how much we comply —  they'll still associate us with DEI,” Kamma said.

Uriostegui said she and other members of Rooted are also still seeking answers from the university.

“The lack of transparency —  they haven't said anything about their decisions. It makes it more frustrating because at the end of the day, we do pay tuition, we were admitted, we deserve to be here, and we pay for the services,” she said.

UT Austin has not responded to requests for comment on the closures of Monarch and the Women’s Community Center.

Still, students like Uriosteui are continuing to fight to support people of all backgrounds at UT. Last week, several pro-DEI organizers met with Rep. Greg Casar, D-Texas, who said he’s planning to work with students in the coming months.

“I want to hear what it is that students have been experiencing and figure out how I can best help because we know that a lot of far right-wing, extremist legislators in Texas have been attacking the programs that help different kinds of students succeed,” Casar said.

In the end, Uriostegui said Rooted and other organizations affected by SB 17 share similar aspirations.

“The goal is to maintain the support services, staff and systems that helped us feel empowered,” she said. “And [that] gave us opportunities, gave us community and security to achieve academic, professional and personal goals while we're at this institution.”