More than 50 universities face federal investigations as part of Trump's
anti-DEI campaign
[March 15, 2025]
By COLLIN BINKLEY
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 50 universities are being investigated for
alleged racial discrimination as part of President Donald Trump’s
campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs that his
officials say exclude white and Asian American students.
The Education Department announced the new investigations Friday, one
month after issuing a memo warning America’s schools and colleges that
they could lose federal money over “race-based preferences” in
admissions, scholarships or any aspect of student life.
“Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not
prejudged by the color of their skin,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon
said in a statement. “We will not yield on this commitment.”
Most of the new inquiries are focused on colleges’ partnerships with the
PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps students from underrepresented
groups get degrees in business with the goal of diversifying the
business world.
Department officials said that the group limits eligibility based on
race and that colleges that partner with it are “engaging in
race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs.”
The group of 45 colleges facing scrutiny over ties to the PhD Project
include major public universities such as Arizona State, Ohio State and
Rutgers, along with prestigious private schools like Yale, Cornell, Duke
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In a statement, the PhD Project said it aims to “create a broader talent
pipeline of current and future business leaders who are committed to
excellence and to each other.”
"This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who
shares that vision,” it said.
Arizona State said the business school is not financially supporting the
PhD Project this year, and on Feb. 20, told faculty that the school
would not support travel to the nonprofit's conference.
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The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Education, March
12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
A statement from Ohio State said the university “does not
discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity or any other protected
class, and our PhD programs are open to all qualified applicants.”
Six other colleges are being investigated for awarding
“impermissible race-based scholarships,” the department said. Those
schools are: Grand Valley State University, Ithaca College, the New
England College of Optometry, the University of Alabama, the
University of South Florida and the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa.
An initial press release from the Education Department erroneously
identified the University of Tulsa as one of the schools under
investigation.
Additionally, the University of Minnesota is being investigated for
allegedly operating a program that segregates students on the basis
of race, the department said.
The Feb. 14 memo from Trump's Republican administration was a
sweeping expansion of a 2023 Supreme Court decision that barred
colleges from using race as a factor in admissions.
That decision focused on admissions policies at Harvard and the
University of North Carolina, but the Education Department said it
will interpret the decision to forbid race-based policies in any
aspect of education, both in K-12 schools and higher education.
In the memo, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil
rights, had said schools’ and colleges' diversity, equity and
inclusion efforts have been “smuggling racial stereotypes and
explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming and
discipline."
The memo is being challenged in federal lawsuits from the nation’s
two largest teachers’ unions. The suits say the memo is too vague
and violates the free speech rights of educators.
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