Trump Orders Crackdown on Campus DEI

WASHINGTON - Jan. 22, 2025 - PRLog -- President Trump has issued an executive order requiring a crackdown on DEI policies and programs, including those at colleges and universities, notes public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

According to a leading higher education publication, "with [their] federal funding on the line," this new executive order is likely to "prompt colleges to act preemptively" and "pre-comply" even before agencies such Department of Education or the National Science Foundation adopt formal policies and apply it to "specific projects."

Further, further according to the Chronicle of Higher Education (https://www-chronicle-com.us1.proxy.openathens.net/article/trump-has-issued-a-blitz-of-executive-orders-some-could-affect-higher-ed), institutions of higher education will not only comply with the strict language of Trump's executive order; they will indeed "revisit their DEI efforts" and probably "adopt the spirit of the executive order" which declares: "institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' (DEI) or 'diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility' (DEIA) that can violate the civil-rights laws of this Nation."

Professor Jonathan Turley agrees, reporting (https://jonathanturley.org/2025/01/22/227929/#more-227929) that "the new order will send a shockwave through higher education."  Here's more of what he predicts:

"We have previously discussed how universities and colleges openly planned for the final rejection of race-based admissions criteria.  The use of federal authority to investigate such circumvention could be a major change for higher education. Most schools have resisted transparency or disclosures on such practices and private litigants often find it difficult to get courts to order discovery. This could expose schools to greater public scrutiny."

In a related but novel development, the Department of Education has forced Harvard University to adopt a much broader definition of Antisemitism - one which considers some criticisms of Israel as an illegal antisemitic violation - for use in investigating claims filed by students.

It defines antisemitism as a "certain perception of Jews that may be expressed as hatred" toward them. Examples include holding Israel to a "double standard" or describing the creation of Israel as a "racist endeavor."

It is likely, with Trump appointees in charge, the Department of Education will demand a similar binding legal commitment - and perhaps much more - as a condition of settling the complaints of illegal discrimination and antisemitism now pending against dozens of major universities, predicts Banzhaf.