EXCLUSIVE: Indiana Gov. Braun Exposes Over 350 Instances of DEI in State Programs 

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Indiana is forging ahead in its efforts to dump diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in state government.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun, after signing a January executive order banning DEI programs from state agencies, released a report on Wednesday with a list of over 350 instances of DEI policies, programs, and hiring procedures that the state will eliminate.  

Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs insist on the preferential treatment of certain minority groups, often based on race, gender, and sexual orientation. DEI policies are used in college admissions, hiring decisions, health care, and corporate practices. 

The Supreme Court declared affirmative action, a hallmark practice of DEI, unconstitutional in the 2023 case Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. vs. President and Fellows of Harvard College.  

Indiana was the second state to ban DEI programs by executive order, following West Virginia, according to a January report by Inside Higher Ed. 

In January, Braun gave all state agencies a July 1 deadline to submit reports on their reviews of “policies, procedures, regulations, and programing” that promote DEI initiatives in any way. 

The reports to the governor’s office numbered in the hundreds.  

According to Braun’s report on Wednesday, state agencies were enforcing over 350 DEI discriminatory practices, spending hundreds of hours of employee work time on DEI training and allocating taxpayer funding to hiring practices prioritizing specific racial groups.

Braun’s office, for example, learned that the Indiana Department of Child Services had a policy in place requiring the hiring and retention of case managers to be “geared toward diversity and inclusion initiatives.” As Braun’s report noted, the policy “created a favoritism of diversity and inclusion initiatives in recruitment efforts for DCS employees, which could have the state missing out on valuable talent.” 

According to the report, state agencies reported 70 cases of DEI training for state employees. The Office of Administrative Law Proceedings dedicated over 100 work hours in 2024 to DEI training for its 60 employees. Programs included a discussion on “DEI & Cultural Competency.”  

Many of the agencies were legally bound to carry out their DEI programs. Over 60 of the DEI initiatives reported to the governor’s office were statutory requirements, meaning that state or federal law required the discriminatory practices.  

Braun is replacing DEI practices with what he calls an “MEI” standard—merit, excellence, and innovation. He told The Daily Signal about 200 MEI programs that will dismantle and replace DEI programs, which had become “confusing, expensive, and inefficient.”  

The governor explained that Indiana would legally enforce MEI in state agencies. “[DEI] led to a bunch of division and inefficiencies,” Braun said. “We’re putting the focus on MEI and … we’re going to get in there and make sure that we’re getting DEI cleaned out.”  

Braun intends to leverage state funding against public universities but noted that the story would be different at private institutions. “When it comes to private universities, you can see some of them … that dig in and make it as hard as it could be to change and get rid of the vestiges of [DEI]. Here in Indiana, I’m going to hope that places take their cue from others that have already done it.”  

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