Colleges like Penn face ire as they try to comply with Trump administration DEI demands

PHILADELPHIA — When Chad Dion Lassiter was a student at the University of Pennsylvania, he was proud of the efforts the school made toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. It was one of the reasons he enrolled there.

Lassiter, who got his master’s in social work in 2001, co-founded the School of Social Policy & Practice’s Black Men at Penn group, which he still heads.

But Lassiter, now executive director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, is disappointed in his alma mater since Penn chose to scrub its website of diversity references and programming in response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting DEI programs.

“I’m very disturbed by the decision that the University of Pennsylvania made,” said Lassiter, who has led the commission ― which enforces state laws that prohibit discrimination and promotes equal opportunity ― since 2018. “For Penn to pull back, it sends a message.”

Penn, which receives about $1 billion annually in federal funding, has said it’s trying to respond to Trump’s demands, as university officials fear losing hundreds of millions in funding. Those fears became more real Wednesday as the White House announced it would pause $175 million in funding to Penn for allowing a transgender woman to compete on its women’s swim team in 2021-22.

Penn is one of many area colleges, both private and public, looking at how to protect itself against attacks and funding cuts as the president goes after higher education on multiple fronts. Rowan University has faced criticism from staff and students for making changes to its website and office structure. Drexel University has lost at least one grant as a result of the Trump administration’s stance on diversity.

In the case of the Penn funding paused Wednesday, it’s unclear what Trump wants Penn to do to have it restored. The National Collegiate Athletic Association last month barred transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports to comply with a Trump order, and the university already has said it is “in full compliance” with the NCAA change. The White House did not respond for comment.

Penn already was concerned about the potential loss of $250 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health because of another Trump order. And with a $22.3 billion endowment, it has been watching closely the debate over raising the excise tax on endowments from 1.4% to as much as 35%.

The endowment supplies about 20% of the school’s operating budget, helping to fund undergraduate and graduate financial aid, faculty salaries, research and other services, the university said.

Penn faces criticism

Penn has maintained that while its websites have changed, its values have not.

But Lassiter, a national expert on race relations who teaches at West Chester University, called that “mixed messaging.”

“Have the courage of your convictions and stand up in this moment,” Lassiter said. “People know Penn to be an HOP, halls of power. And people know Penn to be an FOP, fortress of privilege. With that privilege, why not use it to continue to highlight belonging to humanity for all that are on campus.”

Lassiter isn’t the only one calling on the university to defend itself.

Seven campus labor groups are holding a rally Thursday and delivering a petition with nearly 1,000 signatures to Penn leaders with a series of demands directed at orders from Trump’s administration, including the one on diversity, equity and inclusion.

“There must be no anticipatory obedience on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and no censorship of programs addressing these goals,” the groups say.

“A concession now will simply embolden them to come back for more,” said Amy Offner, president of Penn’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, one of the groups holding the rally.

Students that belong to university minority coalition groups also expressed concern in a statement on Instagram earlier this month.

“This signals that our university is not holding firm in their previous commitments to fostering diversity and equity in all of Penn’s initiatives, programs and operations,” they wrote.

Grant funding pulled at Drexel over DEI

The Trump administration already has begun pulling grants that it says are at odds with its stance on diversity.

At Drexel University, Ayden Scheim, an assistant professor in the department of of epidemiology and bio statistics, said he was informed that a $2.44 million grant he got approval for in September has been terminated. The grant was to develop measures for research on how the social environment impacts later health for Latinos and people from sexual and gender minority groups, he said.

“Research programs based primarily on artificial and non-scientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives, are antithetical to the scientific inquiry, do nothing to expand our knowledge of living systems, provide low returns on investment, and ultimately do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness,” wrote an official from the NIH’s Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration. “Worse, so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) studies are often used to support unlawful discrimination on the basis of race and other protected characteristics, which harms the health of Americans.”

Scheim said universities should oppose the Trump administration’s orders, even if it means loss of funding.

“What happened to Penn yesterday,” he said, referring to the $175 million funding pause, “makes it pretty clear it doesn’t matter how high you jump, they will keep moving the goalposts.”

How other Philly-area colleges are responding

Penn has been in the forefront locally in making the changes to its website and programming.

Most area colleges surveyed said they are continuing to monitor directives from Washington and are reviewing their programs and websites but have not made alterations in response to the Trump order or the federal education department letter that followed.

Several colleges acted for other reasons.

West Chester University changed its Office for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to the Office of Equal Opportunity and Compliance “to more adequately reflect the entire scope of the area’s responsibilities related to equal opportunities,” a spokesperson said. That change was made four days before Trump’s executive order on diversity.

Temple University in December announced it was changing the title of its vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion to vice president for community impact and civic engagement, a modification the university said reflects the broader role.

Neumann University, a small Catholic college in Aston, said it removed references to DEI on its website to comply with Trump’s executive order.

“For 60 years, however,” said spokesperson Steve Bell, “Neumann University has been and will continue to be a diverse and inclusive community by consistently following its mission, which states that ‘Neumann University educates a diverse community of learners based on the belief that knowledge is a gift to be shared in the service of others and learning is a lifelong process.’”

Rowan provost: ‘This is the world we live in’

Rowan, a large public university in New Jersey, earlier this month said it had “reorganized and realigned the departments within the former Division of Inclusive Excellence, Community & Belonging,” which will no longer exist as a division.

The administration earlier this month held a meeting for students, faculty, and staff to discuss its decisions around diversity. Provost Anthony M. Lowman opened the meeting, noting the federal government’s decision to cancel $400 million in contracts and grants at Columbia University because of its handling of antisemitism complaints.

“This is the world we live in, like it or not,” he said.

Rowan’s General Counsel Melissa Wheatcroft said $220 million in federal funding is at risk for Rowan.

“If Rowan goes away, we take away a vital resource for those kids, the community, the region and the state,” she told the audience. “And so if we make some relatively painless changes in the ways in which we communicate our programs and our offerings, we are putting ourselves in the best position to say to the federal government: ‘you said it’s got to be open to all. Come at us. We’re open to all.’”

But she also said she was not going to stop saying diversity, equity, and inclusion, even though the Trump administration has “demonized” the letters DEI.

“And I don’t think you should either,” she said.

Students and faculty expressed concern about the impact on academic freedom, the university’s decision not to get input from faculty and students before making the changes and the longer term implications of those changes. One student said it seems the school is more concerned about losing federal funding than their students’ well being.

Kathryn Quigley, chair of Rowan’s journalism department,said she understands why Rowan made changes. “However I am concerned about what else is to come,” she said. “.... At what point does this institution ― because we are so large ― at what point do we push back? I would just like you to consider, think about, what is Rowan’s red line?”

Princeton, an Ivy League university like Penn, has largely left its diversity, equity, and inclusion websites untouched, reported The Daily Princetonian, the student newspaper.

Calling the Trump administration’s actions “the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s,” Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber in an essay in The Atlantic this week encouraged colleges to stand up.

“The attack on Columbia is a radical threat to scholarly excellence and to America’s leadership in research,” he wrote. “Universities and their leaders should speak up and litigate forcefully to protect their rights.”