Republican governor Donald Trump has been grilled by the AP. Kristi Noem opened a hotline for complaints about South Dakota colleges and is calling on the state's higher education governing board to ban drag shows.
Noem wrote to the South Dakota Board of Regents in a letter to state governors that states have allowed liberal ideologies to poison their colleges and universities. On campus, Noem notes, students have been taught the importance of diversity and equity, and given access to safe spaces instead of learning to tolerate the disagreement, discomfort, and dissent that they will encounter in the real world.
In order to increase graduation rates, she asked the college oversight board to remove references to preferred pronouns from school materials, reduce administrative costs and ensure universities are not accepting any money from China.
Noem pitched the hotline to the regents, as a way to keep our institutions accountable - and ensure that we are all aware of what is happening at our taxpayer-funded colleges and universities. The Hotline said that information gathered from the hotline will guide policy changes.
As I work with our Board of Regents and Board of Technical Education to chart our path for higher education, we are giving students, faculty, and parents this tool to help voice any concerns so that they can be addressed, he said.
In December, the Board of Regents ordered a review of university campus events and its policy on minors attending them after a drag show in South Dakota State University sparked criticism from conservative lawmakers for being advertised as family-friendly.