The Trump administration is probing over 50 universities for their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, which officials claim discriminate against white and Asian students.
The Department of Education announced the investigations on Friday, a month after the administration warned that universities must end their DEI programs or risk losing federal funding, the Daily Wire reported.
“Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. “We will not yield on this commitment.”
Out of the 52 universities now under investigation, 45 of them are under federal scrutiny for their involvement with a group known as the PhD Project, which the Education Department described as “an organization that purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants.”
The investigations target a diverse array of universities nationwide, including Yale, Vanderbilt, Arizona State, New York University, Notre Dame, Boise State, Clemson, Cornell, Duke, and Georgetown.
The Education Department has announced that six out of the 52 institutions are currently under investigation for allegedly awarding “impermissible race-based scholarships.” Additionally, another university is suspected of having hosted a “program that segregates students based on race.”
The colleges involved in these investigations include the University of Alabama, the University of South Florida, and the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
The investigations follow a memo from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights that criticized educational institutions for engaging in discrimination against whites and Asians under the guise of DEI.
“American educational institutions have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families,” Craig Trainor, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, wrote.
“Proponents of these discriminatory practices have attempted to further justify them—particularly during the last four years—under the banner of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (‘DEI’), smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline,” he added.
DEI programs are being targeted for elimination throughout the Trump administration, especially at vital institutions like the U.S. military.
There, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is rapidly carrying out the letter and spirit of an executive order issued by the president early in his new term eliminating them.
No sooner than he was sworn in, Hegseth immediately issued a Pentagon-wide directive to terminate all Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion offices throughout all military departments and civilian DoD agencies.
“The President’s guidance (lawful orders) is clear: No more DEI at Dept. of Defense,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in an X post. “The Pentagon will comply, immediately. No exceptions, name-changes, or delays.” He added that “those who do not comply will no longer work here.”
Earlier, Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Charles Ezell issued a memo to department and agency heads, notifying them that all government DEI offices must be closed immediately. Employees in those offices were informed that they would be placed on paid leave.
There have already been reports that some federal agencies have attempted to dodge Trump’s order by renaming DEI departments and titles of the officials who headed them. Federal employees were asked to report any efforts to disguise DEI programs through the use of imprecise or coded language and titles.
Earlier this month, a city in North Carolina damaged by Hurricane Helene has discovered the hard way that the Trump administration is serious about ending all programs involving DEI.
Asheville, N.C., one of those hit hardest by Helene last year, received $225 million in Community Development Block Grant funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to aid in its recovery, according to a HUD news release. However, Asheville’s initial draft for spending the funds drew criticism from HUD Secretary Scott Turner on Tuesday.
“HUD looks forward to helping thousands of North Carolinians rebuild after Hurricane Helene by directing funding assistance to impacted businesses, non-profit organizations and neighborhoods,” Turner said.
“However, Asheville’s draft action plan incorporated DEI criteria to prioritize some impacted residents over others, which was unacceptable. After HUD informed Asheville that its plan was unsatisfactory and it would not be approved, the city assured us that it was updating its draft action plan to be compliant,” Turner explained.
