Concordia University opens center focused on diversity, equity and inclusion

AUSTIN (KXAN) --- Concordia University welcomed a new space on campus that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion. It's called the Center for Belonging and Faith.

This new space is an initiative of the university's Equity Team. Concordia unveiled it Thursday as part of the ABIDE initiative to promote the values of access, belonging, inclusion, diversity, and equity.

"We will engage in conversations around faith and justice, for instance. A learning center for sure, also just a visual representation for our students that there is a place where they belong. It can be a gathering spot for students to hang out and just enjoy what the space represents, meaning that all students belong here," said Concordia University President Kristi Kirk.

DEI ban at public institutions

As a private university, Concordia can create these DEI focused initiatives even when other public institutions cannot.

At the start of this year, Senate Bill 17 went into effect. The law requires public universities in the state no longer have offices, programs or trainings dedicated to DEI.

It's something that impacted places like Texas State University, where Political Science Professor William DeSoto teaches.

"There may be less direct supervision of private universities," DeSoto said. "This came up with the gun issues too, right? The public universities had less liberty to restrain some gun access than private universities."

DeSoto said this is part of a broader national and state discussion around DEI.

"Conversation we're having about the role of ethnicity and gender, and how do we understand its historical impact and how do we understand it today?" DeSoto said.

Concordia students like Kaitlyn Ruiz said they're grateful for a space like this on campus.

"With that constantly being a constant battle in Texas, Concordia taking on that battle and saying, 'We are going to stand with our students and we are going to stand with our diverse population on campus.' It shows that Concordia is going to do whatever it takes to make sure that our students feel that representation," Ruiz said.