DEI rollbacks hit campus support systems for students of color

Source: AP

Updated 5:43 AM EDT, April 19, 2025


WASHINGTON (AP) — Campus mentors. Move-in events. Scholarships. Diversity offices that made them feel welcome on predominantly white campuses. As U.S. colleges pull back on diversity, equity and inclusion practices, students of color say they are starting to lose all of these things and more.

The full scope of campus DEI rollbacks is still emerging as colleges respond to the Trump administration’s orders against diversity practices. But students at some schools said early cuts are chipping away at the sense of community that helped open the door to higher education.

“It feels like we’re going back. I don’t know how else to describe it,” said Breeana-Iris Rosario, a junior at the University of Michigan, which is closing its DEI office and scrapping a campus-wide inclusion plan. “It’s like our voices aren’t being heard.”

The retreat from DEI has been building for years, driven by Republican-led states that have ordered public colleges to close DEI offices and eliminate programs. But it has accelerated under President Donald Trump and his threats to cut federal funding. Trump’s administration escalated the battle when it suggested in a letter to Harvard University that the school should lose its nonprofit status for defying federal orders, including a demand to eliminate DEI “to the satisfaction of the federal government.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-college-bbe09c081d8a47fcb5616c8fa3b23cee