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Following the inauguration of President Trump, the federal government has been taking actions to end race-based discrimination, including steps taken under the label of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). As a result, many long-standing Cornell practices are being challenged under a threat of losing all federal funding.
Executive Order No. 14173
On January 21, the President signed “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” which ended both diversity programs within the federal government as well as those of federal contractors, including Cornell. The Executive Order found:
“[I]llegal DEI and DEIA policies also threaten the safety of American men, women, and children across the Nation by diminishing the importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selecting people for jobs and services in key sectors of American society, including all levels of government, and the medical, aviation, and law-enforcement communities. Yet in case after tragic case, the American people have witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.”
The Executive Order leaves it to individual cabinet-level departments, such as the Department of Education, to implement this.
Specifically, Section 5 of this Executive Order ordered the Dept. of Justice and the Dept. of Education to “issue guidance to all State and local educational agencies that receive Federal funds, as well as all institutions of higher education that receive Federal grants or participate in the Federal student loan assistance program under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, 20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq., regarding the measures and practices required to comply with Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023).” So, the Executive Order applied the teaching of the Harvard case beyond just undergraduate admissions.
The Executive Order recognizes that people are free to voice alternative viewpoints on DEI:
“This order does not prevent State or local governments, Federal contractors, or Federally-funded State and local educational agencies or institutions of higher education from engaging in First Amendment-protected speech.”
Dear Colleague Letter
On February 13, the Director of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague” Letter to colleges and universities receiving federal aid. The OCR is expanding the teaching of the Harvard case beyond just undergraduate admissions to all areas where DEI would inject racial considerations into making decisions at schools or colleges:
“The Department will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that
has become widespread in this Nation’s educational institutions. The law is clear:
treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as
diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme
Court precedent.”
The OCR is giving all schools and colleges a 14-day grace period to end such racial preferences under the guise of DEI. Schools are
“advised to: (1) ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights law; (2) cease all efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends; and (3) cease all reliance on third-party contractors, clearinghouses, or aggregators that are being used by institutions in an effort to circumvent prohibited uses of race. Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding.”
The Dear Colleague Letter does not announce a nationwide audit program. Instead, concerned citizens can file complaints with OCR to investigate non-compliance. The most significant limitation to this letter’s lasting impact is that the future funding of OCR is unclear. The Department of Education is projected to take major reductions in its staffing, and if the Department of Education is shuttered, a great deal of momentum will be lost before OCR’s activities are successfully transferred to a different agency, such as the U.S. Department of Justice.
Department of Justice Memo
On February 5, the Attorney General sent a memo to all Department of Justice employees implementing the Executive Order. By March 1, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division will issue a report that will make recommendations on steps to end DEI in the private sector. (Although Cornell has four statutory college units that receive appropriations from the SUNY budget and holds many federal grants and contracts, it is considered a part of the “private sector.”)
The memo also notes:
“Educational agencies, colleges, and universities that receive federal funds may not ‘treat some students worse than others in part because of race.’ Students for Fair Admissions, 600 U.S. at 304 (Gorsuch, J., concurring). Consistent with the January 21, 2025, Executive Order, the Department of Justice will work with the Department of Education to issue directions, and the Civil Rights Division will pursue actions, regarding the measures and practices required to comply with Students for Fair Admissions.”
The combined message is that the administration’s DEI reforms will be extended to the private sector in general, as well as to higher education. Cornell will be subject to the combination of both sets of measures as they are announced.
Implications For Cornell
The Office of Civil Rights (OCR) generally keeps ongoing complaints or investigations confidential. However, OCR announced that it has started a Title VI investigation of Cornell regarding possible anti-semitic activity. More specifically, Cornell has conducted DEI programs for a number of years, which are inconsistent with the teaching of the Harvard case.
With regard to racial discrimination in housing, Cornell has:
- Wari Coop – allegedly limited to black female students.
- Ujamaa Residential College – allegedly limited to black students, and Head Resident and RAs appear to be limited to black people.
- Multicultural Greek Fraternal Organizations – has three segments allegedly limited to black, Hispanic, and Asian-American students. Although Cornell was a pioneer in adopting rules prohibiting racial or religious requirements for membership in the 1960s, these policies were not applied to the multicultural Greek organizations that came to Cornell starting in the late 1970s.
- The Latino Living Center is allegedly limited to Hispanic students. RAs are allegedly limited to Latino students.
With regard to employment discrimination, Cornell has:
- Clinical psychologists – In response to student demands, counselors were hired so that students of specific identity groups could be seen by counselors of the same identity group.
- The specific offices within the “Centers for Student Equity, Empowerment, and Belonging” are led by people of the subject identity group.
With regard to registered student/alumni organizations, Cornell has:
- Cornell Black Alumni Association – which in 2020 conducted a fundraiser that it administers to fund black student activism at Cornell
- Black Biomedical / Technical Association
- BlackGen Capital – an investment club allegedly limited to black students
In general, the Intergroup Dialog Project, including its extensive training in conjunction with new student orientation, has been alleged to promote DEI rather than merit.
The point is that Cornell has a number of programs that appear to be exclusionary rather than reflective of the diversity and inclusion of its multi-racial student body.
Cornell has announced a review of all programs, including those listed above, to assure consistency with the holding of the Harvard decision. The burden is on Cornell to show that its programs do not discriminate based upon race. Provost Kavita Bala is heading the review instead of the President’s Advisors on Diversity and Equity (PADE). Cornell has retained an outside law firm for advice.
More than Cornell’s reputation and its federal funding are at stake in getting its implementation of DEI correct. ECornell offers an online certification program in DEI. It is not clear whether the program taught the subject with the same perspective as the majority of the Harvard court. Nor is it clear that the eCornell materials have been revised to reflect the Trump Administration’s decisions and documents.
