San Diego State University's 2026–27 University Senate Policy File requires each college, along with certain administrative bodies including the library system, to maintain a diversity council, according to the San Diego State University Office of Faculty and Staff Diversity. The councils are part of an institutional structure for coordinating and reviewing diversity, equity and inclusion work. The requirement has drawn criticism from a conservative watchdog group, which has also questioned SDSU's use of federal funding.
The councils' stated functions include advising on diversity, equity and inclusion matters, supporting shared governance and transparency, gathering input from members of their units and coordinating related initiatives, according to Campus Reform. The framework is presented as an administrative and governance mechanism, with unit-level plans addressing areas such as hiring, curriculum and institutional climate.
The College of Sciences' diversity page, for example, describes an inclusion representative on every faculty search committee and goals involving curriculum, campus climate and climate-survey measures related to diversity, equity and inclusion, according to the SDSU College of Sciences. Campus Reform separately reported that the Mechanical Engineering Department's plan calls for applicant DEI statements, review of job advertisements for inclusive language and increased recruitment of female faculty.
A Diversity Bureaucracy Years in the Making
SDSU's current council requirement follows an earlier planning mandate. A February 2018 University Senate resolution required every academic and administrative unit to create a unit-specific diversity plan aligned with the university's broader plan, according to the SDSU Faculty and Staff Diversity Office. The university president later required units without an approved plan by fall 2020 to stop making new faculty hires beginning January 1, 2021, making approval of a plan a condition of hiring for those units.
From unit plans to councils
The timeline places the current councils within a broader planning system: the 2018 resolution established unit-level diversity plans, the 2020 enforcement provision linked approved plans to faculty hiring, and the current policy file specifies councils as an ongoing structure for unit-level coordination and review. The available documents describe these as related parts of SDSU's internal governance and planning framework, rather than as a single requirement adopted in 2026.
That infrastructure includes what the diversity office describes as Equity and Inclusion Councils. Faculty hiring itself was also addressed through the university's “Building on Inclusive Excellence” policy, according to the diversity office's records.
Departmental Paperwork and a 37-Page Library Plan
The structure also reaches the department and library levels. San Diego State's Mechanical Engineering Department maintains its own DEI plan, according to the department's DEI page. Campus Reform reported that the University Library's plan runs 37 pages and includes a goal of standardizing DEI practices among hiring managers.
Campus Reform's Critic Sounds the Alarm
Adam Guillette, identified by Campus Reform as the president of the conservative watchdog group cited in its report, criticized DEI as divisive and opposed SDSU's required councils and planning documents. He also questioned the university's diversity and urged scrutiny of its use of federal and private funding. Those statements are the watchdog group's position; the supplied reporting does not indicate that Guillette was independently interviewed for this article.
Campus Reform reported that Guillette pointed to political-donation data involving donors who identify SDSU as their employer and called for the federal government to withdraw roughly $150 million in annual funding, while also urging private donors to stop giving. Campus Reform said it had contacted San Diego State for comment and would update its report if the university responded.
The Money and the Numbers Behind the Debate
The approximately $149 million figure cited in the criticism comes from SDSU Research Foundation reporting of federal award expenditures for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025, as reported by Campus Reform. Separately, the SDSU Office of the President identifies the university as an R1, high-activity research institution under the Carnegie Foundation's classification.
SDSU's diversity push also sits inside broader demographic and legal context. The university reached a record combined enrollment of 41,184 students for the 2025–26 academic year, according to the SDSU NewsCenter. And unlike public university systems in states that have passed laws restricting diversity offices and requirements, SDSU operates under California law, where no such anti-DEI legislative restrictions have been enacted, according to CollegeIQ.
What the available demographic data show
The available federal reporting context does not by itself establish how SDSU's faculty demographics compare with its student population or how either has changed over the past decade. The National Center for Education Statistics' IPEDS Data Feedback Report is based on institutional data supplied during the 2022–23 collection year, so it should be read as a dated reference point rather than a decade-long trend analysis.
That state-level backing extends into the classroom curriculum as well. California Assembly Bill 1460, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in August 2020 and authored by former SDSU Africana Studies professor Shirley Weber, mandated a 3-unit ethnic studies graduation requirement across all 23 California State University campuses starting in the 2021–22 academic year, according to CalMatters. SDSU's strategic plan, “We Rise We Defy: Transcending Borders, Transforming Lives,” discusses diversity and inclusion, per the university's strategic plan website. The school was also named a 2022 “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine, according to Insight Into Academia.
A separate statewide classroom requirement
Separately from SDSU's administrative council and unit-planning structure, California State University system materials say Assembly Bill 1460 required the system to provide ethnic-studies courses at each campus beginning in the 2021–22 academic year, according to the California State University Office of the Chancellor and University of California Office of the President. The law therefore concerns classroom curriculum across the CSU system, while SDSU's council and planning rules govern internal administrative and shared-governance processes.
