One of the changes in Kentucky over the almost 50 years that I have lived here is the wonderful growing diversity, equity, and inclusion in Lexington and at the University of Kentucky where I taught for more than 30 years.
DEI has become a bogeyman for Republican legislators who have proposed Senate Bill 6 and Senate Bill 93 and now House Bill 9. However, since I was a social studies teacher educator, diversity simply meant to me that those of us who teach need to be of diverse backgrounds like our students and have ourselves learned, are continuing to learn, and will teach about the whole and/or pieces of United States history and the history of the world. Warts and all! Early on I suggested students should consider taking one of the late Dr. Bob Olson’s courses on the Middle East. I was excited when Dr. Gerald Smith returned to his alma mater to teach Black History in 1994 and I could urge my advisees to take his courses.
It was helpful, of course, for students coming from diverse backgrounds to have the support of the Appalachian Center, the Martin Luther King Jr. Center, the International Student office, the Office for Students with Disabilities, now part of the Office for Institutional Diversity. As there were scholarships for athletes and merit scholars, there were also scholarships to encourage students of color who in the not so distant past could not attend UK.