Conservative professor sues ASU over its mandatory DEI training

An outspoken conservative professor at Arizona State University has sued his employer, alleging its mandatory diversity, equity and inclusion training for faculty violates a two-year-old state law that forbids public agencies from requiring employees to engage in training “that presents any form of blame or judgment on the basis of race, ethnicity or sex.”

Owen Anderson, a professor of philosophy, religious studies and theology at ASU, is the primary plaintiff in the lawsuit filed Tuesday with the help of the conservative nonprofit Goldwater Institute, based in Arizona.

The complaint alleges ASU’s mandatory DEI training requires employees to agree that white heterosexuals are inherently racist and oppressive, among other subjective topics regarding white privilege and social justice.

It argues the training, and its test at the end, not only runs afoul of the relatively new state law, but the state constitution’s protections on free speech as well.