SD governor calls on college board to ban drag shows and eliminate ‘preferred pronouns’

PIERRE, SD (AP) — Republican Gov. Kristi Noem has opened a hotline for complaints about South Dakota colleges and is calling on the state’s Board of Higher Education to ban drag shows, a announced Noem on Friday.

In a letter to the South Dakota Board of Regents, Noem said the states allowed “liberal ideologies to poison their colleges and universities.”

“On campuses across the country, students have learned the importance of diversity and equity and have had access to ‘safe spaces’ instead of learning to tolerate disagreement, discomfort and dissent. they’ll experience in the real world,” Noem wrote.

She called on the colleges’ board of supervisors to increase graduation rates, remove references to ‘preferred pronouns’ in school materials, cut administrative costs and ensure universities don’t accept money from China.

Noem presented the hotline to the Regents as a way to “hold our institutions accountable – and to ensure that we are all aware of what is happening at our taxpayer-funded colleges and universities”.

She added that information gathered from the hotline will guide policy changes.

“As I work with our Board of Trustees and Technical Education Council to chart our path to higher education, we are giving students, faculty and parents this tool to help them voice their concerns so that ‘they can be resolved,” Noem said in a statement.

In December, the Board of Regents ordered a review of college campus events and its policy on minors attending after a drag show at South Dakota State University was criticized by lawmakers. conservatives for being advertised as family-friendly.