For Richard Oliver, the night of June 3, 2014, was a parent’s worst nightmare.
His daughter Devin Oliver and her classmate Aubree Butts, players on the women’s basketball team at Texas A&M University at Commerce, were killed in a car crash in rural Paris, Texas.
The community mourned and celebrated Oliver and Butts by creating a memorial scholarship.
“I appreciated the fact that that scholarship was targeted specifically for that demographic type — Black female athlete, and particularly basketball — because that’s who my daughter was,” Richard Oliver told The Dallas Morning News.
Now the Devin Oliver and Aubree Butts Memorial Scholarship — and 130 others across Texas — are frozen or being modified as the state’s public universities implement a new state law, according to documents obtained by The News through open records requests. The affected scholarships comprise 80 at Texas A&M University institutions, 45 at University of Texas-affiliated campuses and six at three other public universities.
Known as Senate Bill 17 and authored by state Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, the law is a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs at public universities in Texas and went into effect Jan. 1.
The definition of DEI can be vague, but the law generally says colleges should not have programs designed for students of specific races or genders.
When SB 17 was debated at the Capitol, the focus was on shutting down diversity training and departments that oversee diversity initiatives. Scholarships were not significantly discussed by lawmakers.
Creighton did not speak to The News after his office was contacted requesting an interview about the legislation’s effect on scholarships. He said in an emailed statement that several campuses have saved money by closing “DEI bureaucracies.”
“Since implementation of SB 17, Texas colleges and universities have made real progress to return their institutions to the mission of innovation and education and throughout the process, many institutions are eliminating inefficiencies and redundant expenditures — which could include programs or scholarships that have been eliminated or changed,” Creighton said in the statement.
“The law makes clear that taxpayer funds should not be spent conferring special benefits based on race, color, or ethnicity,” he said, adding SB 17 did not affect scholarships offered by private organizations.
Many of the scholarships affected by the DEI law were administered by schools but funded through donations — not taxpayer dollars — including memorial scholarships created to support students with similar interests and backgrounds to the person being honored or remembered.
A Texas A&M at Commerce spokesman confirmed that the frozen scholarship was intended for women’s athletics, though the most recent recipients included students of color outside of the athletic program. The scholarship was endowed after a charity dinner in 2015. Three students received the scholarship in 2023, according to Sam Butts, Aubree’s father.
“The scholarships do not have anything to do with that diversity program or the state law,” Butts said. “We’re disappointed because that scholarship was set up to help minorities.”
Some scholarships frozen, some changed
Republican lawmakers wanted to end what they viewed as an unequal playing field.
DEI initiatives often focus on providing additional resources — financial aid, advising and other support — to students who historically have been underrepresented on campuses. Though supporters say such efforts foster inclusivity, lawmakers argued they favored race over merit and compelled students to subscribe to the same ideology.
The DEI ban has forced the closure of numerous diversity departments across Texas, ending programs designed to benefit immigrants, nonwhite and LGBTQ students. Dozens of staff have been laid off or reassigned.
The law also led universities to investigate and, in some cases, freeze academic scholarships for nonwhite STEM students, female athletes and immigrant students.
Across eight Texas A&M System campuses, 80 scholarships are on hold or being changed to comply with the law, according to university system documents provided to lawmakers last month.
Some of the scholarships being modified include those specific to a field of study, such as the Biotechnology Diversity Scholarship at Texas A&M’s flagship campus.
“The Biotechnology scholarship at Texas A&M had the word diversity in the title,” a Texas A&M official said in a statement. “Diversity as a criterion was not being used to award this scholarship and the department was asked to remove the word ‘diversity’ from the title.”
The official said a review of thousands of scholarships found 12 more that went through name changes for the same reason. Another 13 mentioned diversity but were inactive and removed from the books.
Affected scholarships at other schools are specific to gender and location, such as the American Association of University Women of Stephenville’s scholarship to “a female high school senior from Erath County, Texas, who plans to attend Tarleton State University as a full-time student.”
Some on the list have already been reinstated, such as three scholarships for female athletics at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
“Following our review, we are comfortable proceeding with the administration of these and our other scholarships,” Rio Grande Valley spokesman Patrick Gonzales said in an email. “Our priority has been and remains to provide financial support to our students while ensuring compliance with all applicable laws.”
Previously, UT officials eliminated a scholarship for undocumented students offered through the now-defunct Monarch program.
In some cases, universities reinstated scholarships by altering their purpose.
At the University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, the William C. Levin, MD Fund for Disadvantaged Students changed references of “minority” students to “disadvantaged.”
At Stephen F. Austin State University, officials amended eligibility requirements for the Dr. Darlene Renfro Westbrook, Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship from a student involved in “multicultural affairs” to a student involved in “student access and development.”
Another memorial scholarship being modified is from Prairie View A&M University and named for Sandra Bland, a Black woman whose 2015 arrest and death sparked national outrage and discussion over police interaction with people of color.
Texas Tech University ended an endowment created for its defunct Black Cultural Center, repurposed in response to the new law, and transferred all remaining funds to a historically Black college in Georgia.
3 UT Dallas scholarships affected
At the University of Texas at Dallas, three scholarships are “frozen” and “pending modification,” according to documents.
One is the Sarah Montgomery Marple-Cantrell Memorial Scholarship, intended to support women studying engineering.
Sarah was a 12-year-old who died by suicide inside an Addison private school bathroom in 2003.
Her death led to the memorial scholarship, created from donations from family and friends.
Sarah’s father, Cyrus Cantrell, was a physics and engineering professor at UTD for more than three decades. He was a founding member of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science. Cantrell died in 2013 at age 72.
“These scholarships are currently being reviewed individually by the UT Dallas Development Office and general counsel. We will also be in consultation with donors and their families,” an official from UTD said in a statement.
The Marple-Cantrell family said they were unaware of the status of the scholarship until The News reached out to them. The families of Aubree Butts and Devin Oliver — the two A&M-Commerce basketball players memorialized in a scholarship — also did not learn SB 17 placed the memorial endowment on hold until contacted by a News reporter.
“I hope we are contacted and are part of that decision-making process where you know the new criteria of how we need to realign the scholarship,” Aubree Butts’ mother, Doris Butts, said in an interview.
Sarah’s mother, Lynn Marple, said the scholarship was meant to encourage women to pursue STEM fields, particularly physics and engineering. Marple is a retired scientist who taught biology at Richland Community College for the past decade.
Marple said Sarah was interested in how things worked and liked to “invent things.” She enjoyed exploring nature, geology and biology, Marple said.
Marple opposes changing who the scholarship is meant to help. “If they would continue to honor the intent and try to give it to a woman, if possible, I would appreciate that.”
For Kate Marple-Cantrell, Sarah’s older sister, the scholarship is about preserving her father’s legacy at UTD.
“Supporting women’s science was really important to him,” she said. “He understood how those disciplines can be more difficult for women to access, and he wanted to really support them.”
The DMN Education Lab deepens the coverage and conversation about urgent education issues critical to the future of North Texas.
The DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative, with support from Bobby and Lottye Lyle, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, The Meadows Foundation, The Murrell Foundation, Solutions Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sydney Smith Hicks and the University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control of the Education Lab’s journalism.
