Digital Media Center
Bryant-Denny Stadium, Gate 61
920 Paul Bryant Drive
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0370
(800) 654-4262

© 2025 Alabama Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
APR listeners have the opportunity to attend live musical performances across Alabama for free! Check out our ticket giveaways here.

More than 50 universities face federal investigations as part of Trump's anti-DEI campaign

FILE - The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Education, March 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
/
AP
FILE - The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Education, March 12, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

More than 50 universities are being investigated for alleged racial discrimination as part of President Donald Trump's campaign to end diversity, equity and inclusion programs that his officials say exclude white and Asian American students. 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.

In a statement, the PhD Project said it aims to "create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders who are committed to excellence and to each other."

"This year, we have opened our membership application to anyone who shares that vision," it said.

Arizona State said the business school is not financially supporting the PhD Project this year, and on Feb. 20, told faculty that the school would not support travel to the nonprofit's conference.

A statement from Ohio State said the university "does not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity or any other protected class, and our PhD programs are open to all qualified applicants."

Six other colleges are being investigated for awarding "impermissible race-based scholarships," the department said. Those schools are: Grand Valley State University, Ithaca College, the New England College of Optometry, the University of Alabama, the University of South Florida and the University of Oklahoma at Tulsa.

An initial press release from the Education Department erroneously identified the University of Tulsa as one of the schools under investigation.

Additionally, the University of Minnesota is being investigated for allegedly operating a program that segregates students on the basis of race, the department said.

The Feb. 14 memo from Trump's Republican administration was a sweeping expansion of a 2023 Supreme Court decision that barred colleges from using race as a factor in admissions.

That decision focused on admissions policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, but the Education Department said it will interpret the decision to forbid race-based policies in any aspect of education, both in K-12 schools and higher education.

In the memo, Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, had said schools' and colleges' diversity, equity and inclusion efforts have been "smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming and discipline."

The memo is being challenged in federal lawsuits from the nation's two largest teachers' unions. The suits say the memo is too vague and violates the free speech rights of educators.

The Associated Press is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering, supplying a steady stream of news to its members, international subscribers and commercial customers. AP is neither privately owned nor government-funded; instead, it's a not-for-profit news cooperative owned by its American newspaper and broadcast members.
News from Alabama Public Radio is a public service in association with the University of Alabama. We depend on your help to keep our programming on the air and online. Please consider supporting the news you rely on with a donation today. Every contribution, no matter the size, propels our vital coverage. Thank you.