Board of Regents Meet Tuesday. Will USD’s “Hawaiian Day” be a topic of discussion?

The South Dakota Board of Regents meet this week in Spearfish, and according to the agenda, several portions of the discussion are in executive session:

Board of Regents April 2019 Agenda by Pat Powers on Scribd

None of the executive session items appear to specifically designate discussions regarding USD, but are left open ended noting that they will be in “Executive Session to Discuss Personnel Matters, Pending and Prospective Litigation, Contractual Matters, Marketing or Pricing Strategies by a Board of a Business Owned by the State When Public Discussion May Be Harmful to the Competitive Position of the Business, and to Consult with Legal Counsel.”

I bring up USD specifically, as early in March, Board of Regents President Kevin Schieffer and USD President Sheila Gestring were firing off press releases discussing the impending investigation of the Hawaiian Day debacle at the USD School of Law, which drove the passage of the Free Speech Act during the past legislative session.

As noted in the Argus Leader, the Presidents were all about getting to the bottom of it several weeks back:

The University of South Dakota will be investigating the actions that led to a student organization renaming an event after it was told holding a “Hawaiian Day” event violates the school’s inclusiveness policy, the university announced Saturday.

USD President Sheila Gestring initiated the investigation, which will focus on the actions of the interim administration of the University of South Dakota School of Law, according to a press release.

Read that here, and…

Kevin V. Schieffer commended USD president Sheila Gestring, who called for an investigation over the weekend into actions that led the law school’s Student Bar Association from changing the name of its “Hawaiian Day” social event to “Beach Day.” In a message to its members, the association said the name had been changed after it was “informed that our previous ‘Hawaiian Day’ was politically incorrect and a violation of our inclusive excellence policy.” The students were also advised not to hand out leis because the flower garlands given to tourists might be deemed “culturally incentive.”

and…

“While it is important to conduct a careful investigation to ensure we understand all of the facts, it is also important to send a strong and prompt message that our freedom of expression policies will be enforced on the campuses. President Gestring has done that. We look forward to a full accounting of this case based on a record of factual findings rather than unsubstantiated reports.”

Read that here.

Regarding the internal demand for an investigation and accounting of the matter, it remains to be seen if it’s going to come up at their Tuesday meeting, and if not, how quickly they act on it.

Why? I’m hearing word that legislators haven’t forgotten about that spate of political correctness run amok. And much like last years’ correspondence between legislative leadership and Regents on campus diversity issues, there’s a good chance that whatever action they take based on the results of their investigation are going to be done with legislators looking over their shoulders.

That could take place in the form of correspondence, but I also had one person use the term “GOAC,” with me, referring to the Government Operations and Audit Committee.  It’s worth noting that State Representative Sue Peterson was the primary person responsible for the Free Speech/Intellectual Diversity measure at in the 2019 session that Regents initially fought, but came to the table on after Hawaiian Day. And it shouldn’t escape attention that Representative Peterson also serves as Vice-Chair for GOAC.

It might be a good indication that “Hawaiian Day” is a topic that will not be forgotten in the coming months.