Many Colleges, Universities Ignore Trump’s Warning To Ditch DEI Or Lose Funding
By Casey Harper | The Center Square
(Worthy News) – The U.S. Department of Education in February warned colleges and universities that if they did not eliminate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, they could risk losing federal funding.
Now, two months later, many universities around the country still boast of their DEI programs and employ DEI staff, raising questions about whether the Department of Education has the staff, and the political will, to enforce its threat.
Notably, in its legal battle with Harvard University, the Trump administration cited ongoing DEI practices as one of multiple reasons for freezing federal funding.
Harvard is hardly alone. Defending Education keeps an online database showing hundreds of schools who have kept their DEI stance intact, at least for now.
In one example, Stanford University’s website boasts its DEI policies, from the Doerr School of Sustainability, which hosted a “sustaining black futures” event in late February, after the DOE’s warning.
That event was sponsored by the school’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and centered around Aida Mariam Davis, who touts creating an alternative to DEI called “Belonging, Dignity, Justice, and Joy,” though Davis’ language appears similar to the language of other DEI programs and speakers.
“May today be filled with gratitude and joy for food, friends and family,” Davis wrote on Twitter, now known as X, on Thanksgiving Day in 2021. “May it also be filled with mourning for deceit, theft, torture, exploitation and murder so that ‘thanksgiving’ can exist.”
Davis’ book, which was the center of the conversation with with Lupe Carrillo, Assistant Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
“Drawing on African epistemologies and an embodied African beingness, Kindred Creation is a call and response to dream and design worlds rooted in African lifeways. It is a path to Black freedom, a love letter to Black futures, and a blueprint for intergenerational Black joy and dignity — always on Black terms. A vital path home.”
Stanford reports receiving hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, much of it for research.
Stanford’s leadership initially said they would review DEI programs in light of Trump’s order, but like many other universities and colleges, DEI so far remains intact.
Hundreds of other schools have their DEI webpages intact and the status quo for DEI departments. Many DEI staffers are still prominently featured on school websites, even at public universities.
For instance, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has its Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
The Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to universities on Feb. 14 advising the nation’s universities of the “potential loss of federal funding.
“All educational institutions are advised to: (1) ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights law; (2) cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends; and (3) cease all reliance on third-party contractors, clearinghouses, or aggregators that are being used by institutions in an effort to circumvent prohibited uses of race,” the letter reads. “Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding.”
Other universities have complied with the Department of Education’s new guidance and nixed their DEI programs.
Others appear to have rebranded, slightly changing the wording of previous programs, subbing out “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” for alternatives like “inclusion and belonging,” or “inclusive excellence.”
It remains unclear whether those rebrands will be enough to satisfy the DOE guidance, but DOE’s warnings so far have suggested that they are on the look out for sidestepping the new rules.
“When schools agree to receive federal funding, they are legally obligated to comply with federal antidiscrimination law,” Julie Hartman, a Department of Education spokeswoman, told The Center Square.
Hartman pointed to Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, a case where the Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that affirmative action admissions policies were discriminatory and violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
“The Equal Protection Clause and Title VI have been the law of the land for decades and SFFA was handed down over a year ago – yet, schools continue to knowingly and willingly flout the law to which they are subjected. Not any longer. The Trump Department of Education has been clear on its guidance pursuant to the law: We will not allow educational entities to segregate, discriminate, and give preferential treatment on the basis of race.”