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The Trump administration has set a two-week deadline for schools nationwide to eliminate their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives or risk losing federal funding.
On Friday (February 14), the Education Department sent a memo ordering schools to end any practice that treats students or workers differently because of their race within the next 14 days, per the Associated Press. Schools will be at risk of losing federal money if they don't stop using "racial preferences" as a factor in admission, financial aid, hiring, and other areas, the memo stated.
The directive is meant to correct alleged alleged discrimination in education, especially against white and Asian students.
“Schools have been operating on the pretext that selecting students for ‘diversity’ or similar euphemisms is not selecting them based on race,” Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in a statement. “No longer. Students should be assessed according to merit, accomplishment, and character.”
Colleges across the nation are rushing to evaluate their practices and decide whether to take a stand for practices they believe are legal. With its vague language, the memo threatens to upend all aspects of campus operations, including classroom lessons, campus clubs, and essays for college applications.
The directive comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning DEI programs in the federal government. Trump cited the 2023 Supreme Court decision to bar race as a factor in college admissions as his legal justification for the move.
Friday's memo specifically stated that college essays can't be used to predict a student's race. In the Supreme Court decision, Chief Justice John Roberts previously said nothing prevents colleges “from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life."
The memo also barred colleges from eliminating standardized testing requirements “to achieve a desired racial balance or to increase racial diversity.” In recent years, several colleges have dropped their SAT and ACT requirements due to concerns that the exams favor high-income students and families.
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