Anti-DEI legislation is driving educators out of Alabama

In August, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) conducted a survey that received 2,924 responses from educators across the South, including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. Around 60 percent of the respondents indicated that their state was not a desirable place to work in higher education.

The responses among Alabama educators were particularly damning of the state, with 57 percent of Alabama’s respondents saying that they would not recommend their state as a place to work to work in higher education. About 29 percent of Alabama professors who responded to the survey stated that they have applied for jobs outside of the state since 2022.

Respondents were also able to indicate why they were concerned about being employed in higher education in their respective states. 56.5 percent of respondents cited salary as a concern, while 53.3 percent of respondents listed overall political climate as a motivator for seeking employment elsewhere. 49.6 percent reported concerns over academic freedom writ-large, and around 30 percent of the respondents specified concerns about tenure; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and shared governance. LGBTQ+ issues, reproduction rights/abortion access, and cost of living were also noted as concerns among more than 20 percent of the respondents. 

Reduced academic freedom in the face of new “anti-DEI” legislation was of particular concern among Alabama’s 88 survey respondents. SB 129, which went into effect on Oct. 1, prevents any state institution in Alabama from using public funding for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The law also restricts classroom discussions on gender, race, and sexual orientation — listing them as “divisive concepts.” The law has resulted in campuses across the state closing or rebranding their DEI offices and campus resource centers.

One survey respondent called SB 129 “an impediment to inclusive learning communities. It is also a challenge to how we work in our classrooms and a threat to our freedom.”

“I am about to leave the school and move to a position in a new, blue state due to the overall political climate in Alabama,” another respondent wrote. “I conduct government funded research and am taking my grants with me, costing the school hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

One respondent even claimed that art teachers in Alabama were no longer allowed to showcase artworks reflecting diversity.

Salary concerns were also prevalent among the survey respondents, including among those in Alabama. “Salaries at my school for contract faculty are deeply depressed compared to peer institutions,” noted one educator from Alabama. “The raise pool remains low each and every year and merit raises are almost nonexistent.”

It is important to note that the survey results may be biased in favor of those with more negative outlooks. The respondent pool from Alabama was small and predominantly white, limiting the generalizability of its results. Additionally, those with stronger, more negative feelings could feel more inclined to voice their concerns by participating in such a survey. 

The quality of Alabama’s education system is already consistently ranked among the poorest in the nation. It is difficult to see how losing any number of professors, no matter how few, would do anything other than deal further harm to that system and to the quality of education available to the current and upcoming generations of Alabamian scholars.