President Donald Trump is reportedly upping the ante in his crusade against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices.
The Education Department announced on Friday that it is launching an investigation into over 50 universities over policies that allegedly discriminate against students and faculty based on race, The Associated Press reported.
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.
Shortly after taking office, President Trump issued two executive orders aimed at dismantling DEI initiatives within the federal government and universities. The orders prohibit the government from funding institutions that employ DEI practices. He also threatened to pull federal funding from universities that continue with these initiatives.
You can see the full list of universities being targeted here.
Professors discuss whether their universities are really shutting down DEI (the answer is no): pic.twitter.com/Qcef9zoceM
— Steve McGuire (@sfmcguire79) March 14, 2025
Many universities, along with major corporations, have already begun to scrap or revamp their DEI programs to comply with Trump’s executive orders.
However, there are still plenty of holdouts, including Harvard University.
As many American universities erase their diversity, equity, and inclusion programming in response to threats from the new Trump administration, Harvard has taken a different road — quietly maintaining its diversity initiatives and sometimes actively defending diversity on campus.
Less than two weeks ago, Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 voiced support for the merits of diversity in opening remarks at the University’s third-annual Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Forum.
“Our community spurs and speeds excellence by embracing difference in its many forms,” he said. “Exposure to different backgrounds, different perspectives, and different experiences leads to intellectual and personal growth.”
The Trump administration issued a memo on February 14 giving schools two weeks to curtail their DEI programs and any others that treats people differently because of their race.
This development comes after a judge blocked the implementation of Trump’s executive orders after a coalition of groups filed a lawsuit against the administration.
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