We look back at some of the final action on this last day of the 2025 session.

As we began tonight's legislative update, House Bill four, which gets rid of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts on public college campuses, will become law.

The Republican supermajority in the state House overrode the governor's veto last evening.

Our Jim LaFleur tells us what the new law means for the state's higher ed institutions.

Dei was already threatened before the 2025 legislative session.

Lawmakers criticized Dei last year, and the University of Kentucky and Northern Kentucky University cut their Dei offices.

But the University of Louisville held out keeping mentorships and scholarships in place for students like Bradley Price.

I'm a Woodford Porter Scholar, and I'm a Martin Luther King scholar.

And I'm very concerned about, already underfunded programs becoming more underfunded for price, UVA's cultural and equity center is not just some administrative building.

She loves the people who work there.

I always go there.

I'm always talking to Miss Leandra.

Miss Marion, and they really have helped me and mentored me throughout my college experience and made me feel safe on campus.

The fate of that office is in jeopardy now.

That House Bill four is long.

It prohibits hiring, admission, scholarships, and contracts based on religion, race, sex, color, or national origin.

It also bans funding for D-I offices, trainings, or initiatives, among other things.

Republicans who voted to pass House Bill four in the final days of the session say this law will make things fair.

We're seeing the results of equity across our institutions and hiring practices throughout the United States, and a lowering of standards because it's not about equal opportunity, it's about equal outcomes, which is impossible because we all come from so many different backgrounds with different skill sets.

We can never have equal outcomes of anything.

So this equity that we talk about is all about lowering a standard.

Our greatest divide as a commonwealth and as a nation is not based in race, but is rural and urban.

I'm voting no today because Dei on our college campuses is not helping poor kids in Kentucky who are seeking to further their educational goals, regardless of their immutable characteristics.

This legislation is only a message to those who are unwilling or unable to love others deep enough to allow them to seek their own way or their own level of success.

Democrats pushed back, even at the end, against those claims.

It does not equip students with the tools to compete in an increasingly diverse world.

Instead, it eliminates resources that helps institutions foster an inclusive learning environment.

It sends a message that diversity is not a strength.

And so since we passed this legislation out of this body, I've had students coming to me crying, students of color saying that they feel unsafe, saying that they feel like this legislation means that they are not welcome.

Confused about what it means for their education and for the resources that support them?

And they're scared.

What?

The question that I would ask is, what would America be without its enslaved Africans?

Think about the things that we take for granted.

The internet, cell phones, all the technology and all the things that out of the ingenuity of the people that are my ancestors, created from nothing and figured out how to do it after being mis educated and mistreated in this country.

The General Assembly passed House Bill four, overriding the governor's veto largely along party lines.

The overhaul that will likely happen on college campuses could prevent discrimination lawsuits.

The bill's sponsor has said, citing the US Supreme Court's decision against affirmative action at colleges.

Changes might also preempt investigations from the Trump administration, which recently targeted UC's involvement in the PhD project.

In that case, U.K. swiftly cut ties with the nonprofit that encourages underrepresented students to obtain advanced business degrees.

To fall in line at the state level.

Universities will have to prove to the state auditor their compliance with House Bill four.

By the end of June.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Jim Leffler.

Thank you Jim.

Universities will also conduct surveys in the fall, asking students and staff how they how free they feel to express their political opinions.