Governor Bill Haslam on Friday allowed a bill to defund the controversial Office of Diversity at the University of Tennessee to go into effect without his signature.
The university has disbanded the office with a savings of $445,000, including cutting four positions.
The law directed that the funds be used for its scholarships for minority students in engineering programs.
There was an uproar after the office encouraged students to use gender-neutral pronouns rather than he and she.
The bill is only in effect for a year.