Emporia State weighs fate of Social Change program as Kansas lawmakers target DEI
Mallory Bishop defends her work during a Feb. 5, 2026, hearing at Emporia State University on whether to eliminate the Social Change program. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
EMPORIA — Emporia State University freshman Hayden Gust told faculty members Thursday he wouldn’t be standing in front of them if he hadn’t met Mallory Bishop.
The faculty members and university provost were meeting to decide whether to discontinue Bishop’s Social Change program, formerly called ethnic and gender studies. If discontinued, Bishop would keep her job and teach the same courses, but students could no longer major in an arena that has fallen under the shadow of a legislative crusade against diversity, equity and inclusion.
Gust said the program granted him the opportunity to meet some of his best friends, including a classmate he now considers a sister.
“Part of last semester was really difficult for me, and had it not been for this major, I would never have met Mallory Bishop. Love her,” Gust said. “I would have dropped out, realistically, because with all the pressures and not having Mallory’s leadership there and her rallying behind me, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Hayden Gust speaks at a Feb. 5, 2026, hearing at Emporia State University on whether to eliminate the Social Change program. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Gust spoke alongside alumni and faculty members who voiced support for the Social Change program during a one-hour public hearing in a room in the student union basement.
The problem is the program appears to have little student interest, with just one to three students pursuing a Social Change major each year. That is partly because it is intertwined with the university’s interdisciplinary studies program, which allows students to customize a degree that includes the social change classes. The university’s reporting system doesn’t track dual-major designations like Gust, who is seeking social change and communications degrees.
Bishop has transformed her undergrad program in recent years, altering its name and focus while the university moved it into the School of Library and Information Management. Bishop teaches all of the required classes for the Social Change program, including one for which she isn’t paid.
But under direction from the Kansas Board of Regents, universities are reviewing programs that fail to meet certain metrics, like those with fewer than 25 students enrolled. The options are to discontinue the program, merge it with another program, or place it on an action plan for improvement.
Wooseob Jeong, dean of the library school, recommended in a Dec. 4 letter to provost Brent Thomas that the university discontinue Bishop’s program based on KBOR guidelines, even though her classes “have been very popular, often with more than 25 students.” His letter noted that just four Social Change majors and 16 minors had been awarded since 2021.
Bishop pointed out in a Dec. 8 response letter that getting rid of the program would result in no cost savings for the university. She proposed a three-year plan to improve enrollment numbers.
From left, Wooseob Jeong, dean of the School of Library and Information Management, left, and provost Brent Thomas appear at a Feb. 5, 2026, hearing at Emporia State University on whether to eliminate the Social Change program. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
On Thursday, a Faculty Senate committee questioned Bishop, Jeong and Thomas, in addition to hearing public input. The committee will make a recommendation about the future of the Social Change program to Thomas, who will then offer his own assessment to the university president, who has the final say.
“Has any thought gone into the possibility that those numbers are going to be changing in the next 10 years, due to the fact that the tide will turn politically at some point?” said Scott Wichael, an associate music professor. “It would behoove us to keep in line with this in hoping that we would attract more students in the not-too-distant future.”
Thomas said long-term trends “can be considered as part of the process.”
Currently, Kansas lawmakers are entertaining legislation that would ban DEI and critical race theory from courses that count toward degree requirements at the state’s public universities. Lawmakers also are considering a budget plan that would withhold $2 million from each university until DEI and CRT materials are removed from curriculum.
Bishop said in an interview after Thursday’s hearing that “it would be pure bliss to ignore the implications” of the Legislature’s interest in stamping out DEI-related programs.
“It would be foolish to not see connections amongst those things,” she said.
She said it may not seem like a big deal to lose the major, since she would still teach the same classes, but she sees value in having it listed as an option for students.
“How do we expect people to be those agents of social change, to go out and make their communities better, if they don’t know that that’s something they can actually study?” Bishop said.
Thomas said in an interview that the evaluation of Bishop’s program wasn’t politically motivated but rather the product of Board of Regents guidance.
“This is more of just something that universities, including Emporia State, have to do,” Thomas said. “We just have to look at our programs and ask ourselves hard questions.”
Jessica Reth appears at a Feb. 5, 2026, hearing at Emporia State University on whether to eliminate the Social Change program. She says Social Change classes prepared her for her work as a food and housing coordinator for the United Way of the Flint Hills. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
Jessica Reth, a 2022 ESU graduate, said during Thursdays’ meeting that she would have pursued a Social Change major if she had realized it was an option. She asserted that the university should invest in promoting the program.
Reth said she started as a biology major, “which was a whirlwind for me,” because she was interested in plants. She shifted gears after taking a sociology class and ended up in the interdisciplinary studies program. That included taking classes from Bishop, she said, which put her on the path to her current job — food and housing coordinator for the United Way of the Flint Hills. She also leads the Healthier Lyon County Coalition and sits on the Lyon County Food and Farm Council.
“All of those opportunities shaped the person I am today, and allow me to have the impact on our local community that I otherwise don’t think I would have stayed in,” Reth said.
Gust quoted from the university’s mission “to prepare students for lifelong learning, rewarding careers and adaptive leadership.”
“If you take away things that make them better citizens, you’re failing at that,” he said.
Bishop said Gust’s comments remind her “of why I do my job.”
“It is really important to me to help students find a place where they belong, for them to understand that they matter, that they can do things that matter in the world, and that they have a right to exist and to exist safely and freely and to be able to find their people in their community,” she said.
After the room had cleared Thursday, Gust and Bishop told each other they had almost cried during his remarks.
“I owe my life to you,” Gust said.
“You have a lot more in you than you think,” Bishop said. “We all need people to be able to believe in us. I believe in you.”