Guidance re Compliance with State Laws

GUIDANCE DOCUMENT TENNESSEE STATE LAW COMPLIANCE REQUIREMENTS CIVIL RIGHTS/DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

This informal guidance document is intended to help TBR colleges understand and comply with Tennessee state laws relating to civil rights issues, including Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”). This non-privileged summary includes major requirements and prohibitions in Tennessee law, but it does not describe every aspect and nuance. Colleges should contact the Office of General Counsel (“OGC”) for legal advice.

Discrimination/DEI-Related issues
1. Dismantling DEI Departments Act. T.C.A. § 49-7-192 (2025).
  1. A DEI office, or any office by another name that engages in DEI activities, is prohibited.
  2. Discriminatory Preferences. Colleges are not permitted to use any policy, practice, or requirement “in an effort to increase diversity, equity, or inclusion” that “grants or withholds beneﬁts, opportunities, advantages, [etc.] on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, age, or any other demographic characteristic.”
  3. Any existing mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, declarations, etc. from a college or unit of a college in conﬂict with the statute are void.
2. Employment Discrimination. T.C.A. § 49-7-193 (2025). Colleges are not permitted to base any employment decision on any metric that considers race, ethnicity, sex, or any other similar demographic characteristic, rather than individual merit, qualiﬁcations, veteran status, or lawful eligibility criteria. “Employment decision” should be interpreted broadly to include every aspect of employment from recruitment to termination, as well as decisions in between (e.g., pay, promotions, terms and conditions of employment). A separate statute, T.C.A. § 49-50-1801 (2025), also contains broad prohibitions against employment discrimination similar to those already existing in federal and state law.
3. Discrimination Against Students. Discrimination against students on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sex, or religion is prohibited. T.C.A. § 49-50-1801 (2025). The prohibitions are very similar to those already prohibited by federal law in Title IX, Title VI, and Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. Another statute, T.C.A. § 49-7-191 (2025), contains similar prohibitions, but it applies only to four-year institutions, both public and private.
4. Divisive Concepts Act. T.C.A. § 49-7-1901 et seq. (passed in 2022 and amended in 2023 and 2024). Provisions in the “Divisive Concepts Act” that previously permitted certain DEI activities were superseded in 2025 by the Dismantling DEI Departments Act, which is now controlling. Colleges should not read the Divisive Concepts Act to permit DEI activities.
  1. “Divisive Concepts” are deﬁned terms. T.C.A. § 49-7-1902 (2022). The Divisive Concepts are sixteen speciﬁc ideas deﬁned in the statute, not a broader range of concepts that people might subjectively, or even objectively, consider to be divisive. A list of the sixteen Divisive Concepts is included in the Divisive Concepts Notice.
  2. Notice and Training. Colleges (and the System Office), per T.C.A. § 49-7-1904(d), must:
    1. Post a Divisive Concepts Notice on their websites. Consult OGC before making any changes to the notice, other than stylistic revisions, such as college logo or font. Because complaints about violations of the Divisive Concepts Act are investigated by System-wide Internal Audit, no variations on reporting an alleged violation will be approved.
    2. Include a Divisive Concepts Notice in orientation/introductory materials for new students and employees.
    3. Provide employee training to ensure compliance with the Divisive Concepts Act. This is not an annual requirement. OGC conducted signiﬁcant employee training on these subjects following passage of the Divisive Concepts Act.
  3. Colleges shall not:
    1. Discriminate, penalize, or take adverse action against an employee or student for refusing to support one or more Divisive Concepts. T.C.A. § 49-7-1903(1).
    2. Require students, faculty, or staff to support a speciﬁc ideology or political viewpoint for hiring, tenure, promotion, graduation, admission, etc. This prohibition applies to any ideological or political viewpoint, not just to Divisive Concepts. T.C.A. § 49-7-1903(2).
    3. Ask the ideological or political viewpoint of a student, job applicant or candidate, or candidate for promotion or tenure. This applies to any ideological or political viewpoint, not just to Divisive Concepts. T.C.A. § 49-7-1903(2). The statute does not bar classroom discussions involving ideology or viewpoint.
    4. Require an applicant for admission or employment to submit a diversity statement. T.C.A. § 49-7-1903(3).
    5. Use training programs or training materials for students or employees if the materials include one or more Divisive Concepts. T.C.A. § 49-7-1904(a)(2). A trainer may respond to questions about Divisive Concepts, as long as the response does not endorse or advocate for any Divisive Concepts. T.C.A. § 49-7-1906. Training does not include faculty teaching students.
    6. Require faculty or staff to take implicit bias training or take adverse action against someone for failure to participate in implicit bias training. T.C.A. § 49-7-184 (2023).
    7. Use state funds to incentivize incorporating any Divisive Concept into academic curricula. T.C.A. § 49-7-1904(a)(3). This statute does not apply to the payment of regular compensation to faculty.
    8. Approve or use state/college funds for subscriptions or travel in conjunction with membership, meetings, or activities of an organization that requires participants to endorse or promote a Divisive Concept. T.C.A. § 49-7-1904(a)(4).
  4. Students, faculty, and staff may ﬁle a complaint about an alleged violation of T.C.A. § 49-7-1903 through Submit a Complaint (which is included as a link in the Divisive Concepts Notice). System-wide Internal Audit will investigate complaints, report to the Comptroller as required, and work with the College to take appropriate remedial steps, if necessary. T.C.A. § 49-7-1907(b).
  5. The System Office will conduct a biennial survey of students, faculty, and staff to assess the campus climate with regard to diversity of thought and comfort level with speaking freely on campus. T.C.A. § 49-7-1905.
  6. The Divisive Concepts Act states (T.C.A. § 49-7-1906) that it does not:
    1. Prohibit non-discrimination training;
    2. Infringe on First Amendment rights;
    3. Infringe on faculty’s academic freedom;
    4. Require employees to violate federal law or fail to comply with accreditation requirements; or
    5. Prohibit a trainer from responding to questions about Divisive Concepts, as long as the response does not endorse or advocate for Divisive Concepts.
5. Compliance with Students for Fair Admissions Required. T.C.A. § 49-7-189 (2024). Colleges are required to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
Sex Discrimination, Title IX, and Sexual Misconduct
1. Deﬁnition of Sex. When used in the Tennessee Code, “sex” means “a person’s immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth and evidence of a person’s biological sex.” T.C.A. § 1-3-105(c).
2. Investigator Training. The Title IX Coordinator and employees who investigate sexual misconduct must complete annual training that meets the requirements of both Title IX and the Clery Act, as well as those statutes’ implementing regulations. T.C.A. § 49-7-122 (2018).
3. Student Training. Colleges must require all entering ﬁrst year students during orientation or introductory studies to receive instruction aimed at increasing awareness and prevention of sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual harassment, and date rape. Colleges are encouraged to provide such training, as well as training designed to increase awareness of and to prevent hate crimes, to all students. T.C.A. § 49-7-137 (2016).
4. Sexual Misconduct Accusations and Proceedings. State law requirements regarding notice and the conduct of investigation and disciplinary proceedings are consistent with the federal Title IX regulations and included in TBR Policy 6.03.00.00, Sexual Misconduct. T.C.A. § 49-7-1701 et seq. (2018).
Gender Identity
1. Preferred Names and Pronouns. T.C.A. § 49-7-2409 (2025).
  1. Students, faculty, and staff are not required to use (i) the preferred name of a student, faculty member, staff member, or contractor if the individual’s preferred name is not the individual’s legal name or a derivative thereof or (ii) a person’s preferred pronoun if inconsistent with the individual’s sex.
  2. A college is prohibited from taking disciplinary or other adverse action against an individual because he or she either (i) refused to provide preferred pronouns or (ii) refused to use another individual’s preferred name or pronouns.
  3. The college must send an annual notice to students, faculty, and staff, separate from any other notice or report, consistent with the following:
    
    This notice is being sent pursuant to the Campus Free Speech Protection Act, Tennessee Code Annotated section 49-7-2409. The CFSPA provides that students, faculty, and staff are not required to use (1) a person’s preferred name if the preferred name is not the individual’s legal name or a derivative thereof or (2) a person’s preferred pronouns if not consistent with the individual’s sex. The College is prohibited from taking disciplinary or other adverse action against a person because the person refused to use another individual’s preferred name or pronouns or because the individual refused to provide the individual’s preferred pronouns.
2. Sports Participation. T.C.A. § 49-7-180 (2022). Men are not permitted to participate on intercollegiate and intramural athletic teams for women. This prohibition does not apply to coed or mixed teams. The colleges have included the required policy in the Tennessee Community College Athletic Association rules.
3. Residential Education Programs. T.C.A. § 49-7-190 (2025). If a college has a program that allow minors enrolled in elementary and secondary schools to stay overnight (one or more nights) in a residential facility, all multi-occupancy restrooms, changing areas, and showers where the minors stay overnight must be segregated by sex. Although TBR colleges do not have residential facilities for use by minors, a college should follow this requirement if it uses another college’s residential facilities.
Religion
1. Religious Student Organizations are permitted to require that members and leaders conform to the tenets of the religion. T.C.A. § 49-7-156 (2013). The requirements of this statute are contained in TBR Policy 3.01.01.00, Student Organizations.
2. Burdening Religion. Colleges may not have policies or rules that unlawfully burden students’ free exercise of religion. Colleges must comply with T.C.A. § 4-1-407, which prohibits many burdens on the free exercise of religion. T.C.A. § 49-7-157 (2013). Colleges will likely need to make accommodation for religious issues and practices and should consult OGC.
3. Antisemitism. Colleges must prohibit antisemitic harassment and discrimination against employees and students. Codes of conduct and antidiscrimination policies must include the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working deﬁnition of antisemitism. This statutory requirement is included in both TBR Policy 3.02.00.01, General Policy on Student Conduct & Disciplinary Standards and TBR Guideline P-080, Complaint and Investigation Procedure. Allegations of antisemitic harassment and discrimination must be reported to the college’s Title VI Coordinator. The Title VI Coordinator must assist the System Office in compiling an annual report on antisemitism, which the System Office will submit by June 30 each year to the Attorney General and General Assembly. Colleges are encouraged to provide antisemitism awareness training to students, faculty, and staff. T.C.A. § 49-7-181(2022); T.C.A. 49-50-1802 (2025). Be sure to consult OGC upon receipt of a complaint of antisemitism.
Freedom of Speech and Expression
1. The Campus Free Speech Protection Act, T.C.A. § § 49-7-2401 – 2409, and the Tennessee Higher Education Freedom of Expression and Transparency Act, T. C.A. § 49-7-1907, restate many principles and requirements established by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which are included in TBR Policy 1.03.02.60, Freedom of Speech and Expression.
2. Colleges are required to place reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on speech to ensure order and protect the rights of all students. T.C.A. § 49-50-1802(d).

Those topics are addressed in TBR Policy 1.03.05.50, Access to and Use of Campus Property and Facilities.

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Guidance re Compliance with State Laws