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Oklahoma Gov. Stitt signed SB796 banning state funds for DEI programs at public universities

On May 14, 2025, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 796, barring the use of state funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion positions, offices, and programs at the state's public colleges and universities. The law also prohibits institutions from requiring diversity statements in admissions or hiring, from mandating the disclosure of a person's pronouns, and from requiring DEI-related training. It took effect July 1, 2025, with a compliance deadline of July 1, 2026.

Jurisdiction
Oklahoma
Location
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Abuses documented

Actors

On May 14, 2025, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed Senate Bill 796 into law, prohibiting the use of state funds for diversity, equity, and inclusion positions, offices, initiatives, and programs at the state's public colleges and universities. The measure also bars public institutions from requiring diversity statements in admissions or employment decisions, from mandating that individuals disclose their pronouns, and from requiring DEI-related training. Authored in the Senate by state Sen. Adam Pugh and in the House by state Rep. Denise Crosswhite Hader, the bill codified an earlier executive order Stitt had issued directing a review of DEI programs at state agencies and universities.

The law took effect July 1, 2025, and set a compliance deadline of July 1, 2026, by which institutions were required to eliminate the prohibited positions and programs. Supporters described the measure as ensuring state dollars were not spent on DEI bureaucracy, while opponents said it dismantled offices and staff that supported marginalized students and used the state's funding power to strip away institutional inclusion structures. The pronoun-disclosure and diversity-statement prohibitions extend the ban to compelled or restricted expression tied to gender identity within public higher education.

Why we recorded this

The protection of law is meant to extend equally to all, and public universities are open institutions whose access and employment should not turn on identity or belief. SB796 uses the state's spending power to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and programs across Oklahoma's public colleges, and it bars institutions from requiring diversity statements or the disclosure of a person's pronouns. By writing these prohibitions into law, Oklahoma directs the machinery of state funding against structures built to serve marginalized students and staff, singling out inclusion efforts — and the gender-identity disclosures the law targets — for categorical removal. This archive records when officials enact policy that disadvantages people on the basis of identity through the state's control of institutional funding.

Sources

  1. Oklahoma SB796 (2025) — bill history — LegiScan primary accessed July 14, 2026
  2. Senator Pugh Receives Passage of Senate Bill 796 to End DEI Policies in Higher Education — Oklahoma State Senate primary accessed July 14, 2026
  3. Stitt's anti-DEI policy for Oklahoma colleges and universities now state law — KOSU secondary accessed July 14, 2026
  4. DEI ban on Oklahoma college campuses signed into law — Oklahoma Voice secondary accessed July 14, 2026

See also