State department to cut 38 universities from research program over DEI policies

Source: The Guardian

Wed 19 Nov 2025 06.00 EST
Last modified on Wed 19 Nov 2025 09.45 EST


The state department is proposing to suspend 38 universities including Harvard and Yale from a federal research partnership program because they engage in diversity, equity and inclusion hiring practices, according to an internal memo and spreadsheet obtained by the Guardian.

The memo, dated 17 November, recommends excluding institutions from the Diplomacy Lab – a program that pairs university researchers with state department policy offices – if they “openly engage in DEI hiring practices” or set DEI objectives for candidate pools.

Elite institutions including Stanford University, Yale University, Johns Hopkins University, Duke University and the University of Southern California are among those marked for suspension, effective 1 January 2026. Other targeted schools include American University, George Washington University, Syracuse University and several University of California campuses.

The Diplomacy Lab, authorized in 2013, connects state department offices with academic researchers to conduct semester-long projects on foreign policy challenges, according to an archived version of the website. The program provides universities with real-world research opportunities while offering the department access to academic expertise and potential recruits. Should the suggestions go through, the shift would remake the academic partnership network, replacing suspended institutions with new partners including Liberty University, Brigham Young University and several schools in Missouri and Texas.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/19/universities-state-department-dei-research-program