From Mandate to Implementation: A Comparative Study of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Professional Development Across Washington’s Public Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

In 2021, Washington State enacted Senate Bill 5227, which established a requirement, codified at RCW 28B.10.145, that every public higher education institution provide diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and antiracism professional development, existing or new, for faculty and staff, with institutional discretion over design and delivery. The inaugural biennial reporting cycle closed in December 2024, producing the first public record of how these institutions implemented the mandate. This thesis is an implementation study of that mandate: a directed qualitative content analysis conducted as a census of all 40 of Washington State’s public higher education institutions. Each institution’s documented program was coded on a 20-field instrument derived from the statute. Coding was anchored to the December 2024 reporting window, with an auditable trail recorded for every coded value. The findings show universal program existence (40 of 40) alongside a pronounced asymmetry in coverage of the statute’s elements. DEI (40 of 40) and antiracism (36 of 40) content have widespread coverage, and most report a publicly posted framework (30 of 40); but other elements fall off sharply: an all-employee mandate (21 of 40), a program-specific participant evaluation (19 of 40), documented four-group stakeholder co-development (7 of 40), and an explicitly named commonalities and humanity content focus (2 of 40). A single external vendor is documented as a provider at 18 of 40 institutions, far more than any other vendor. The study contributes a replicable implementation baseline and surfaces the state’s reporting infrastructure as a substantive object of inquiry.