Two Januaries ago, on the top floor of a Chicago skyscraper, I fiddled with the gold, engraved buttons of my cardigan as my Harvard interviewer and I swapped stories about Harvard’s craziest classes and Chicago’s hidden gems. In a pause in conversation, she jumped at the opportunity to ask what I was most excited to experience in college. I didn’t hesitate: the chance to learn, grow, and be propelled by the force of thought, of experience, and most importantly, of diversity—which I believed defined the Harvard experience.
It’s important that educational spaces are places where perspectives collide and where assumptions or prior understandings unravel. Harvard, as a global institution, prides itself on this commitment to fostering an environment that “draws on the widest possible pool of talent to unify excellence and diversity.” This pursuit of excellence isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s found in the thespian and the mathematician, the activist and the athlete. It’s found in the spaces between every kind of student—in both the friction and the fusion.
Harvard isn’t alone in this commitment to viewing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a vehicle to achieve excellence. Many colleges and universities around the country have long-standing commitments to cultivating inclusive environments. Yet, as I’m in the midst of my second year of college, I can’t help but recognize all the ways in which this vision is being challenged. In his very first days in office, President Donald Trump weaponized civil rights laws that address discrimination in education to undermine these very efforts.
Since Trump has taken office, he has published a series of executive orders, one of which targets DEI in higher education institutions, aiming to end what he calls “illegal” policies. Designating any institution that receives federal financial aid as a subcontractor, the order dictates that such colleges’ employment, procurement, and contracting practices “shall not consider race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin in ways that violate the Nation’s civil rights laws.”
Trump directed each federal agency in his executive order to “identify up to nine potential civil rights compliance investigations” of various organizations, including higher-education institutions with endowments over $1 billion, a category that undoubtedly includes all the Ivy League Schools.
The order directs agencies to “enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.” It does not, at any point, define DEI. Further, the order also calls on the Secretary of Education to create instructions for colleges and universities on how to comply with the 2023 Supreme Court ruling in the case Students for Fair Admissions, INC. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, which banned the use of race-conscious admissions policies.
DEI programs are not discriminatory; rather, they encompass a wide range of lawful initiatives to create fairer schools, fully in line with constitutional principles of equal protection. While these initiatives are designed to uplift a wide range of communities, like women, people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, veterans, and people with disabilities, Trump’s executive orders seek to conflate these lawful efforts with discrimination. However, DEI programs operate within the bounds of the Constitution, working to ensure that all students have equitable access to opportunities. Through attacking the work of DEI offices at educational institutions, Trump’s order attempts to dismantle integral systems that uplift and support historically underrepresented student populations.
The executive order deeply mischaracterizes DEI and aims at the core mission of higher education. Trump’s administration has fundamentally always been afraid of DEI practices, mischaracterizing equity programs as discriminatory. Trump and conservative politicians alike perpetuate the false notion that the remedies of discrimination are seen as its roots.
In trying to assert political control over American higher education, Trump is doing exactly what he said he would do—advancing an America that prioritizes color-blind, merit-based admissions practices. His official inaugural address was a clear indicator when he said he’d “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.” Trump’s immediate actions in office represent a deliberate attempt to reverse more than 50 years of civil rights work committed to promoting equal access to the American education system. He is undoing decades of bi-partisan federal anti-discrimination policy.
In college campuses, DEI initiatives are essential to fostering environments where everyone has an equal chance to succeed. Actively abandoning and dismantling DEI programs risks perpetuating inequality by alienating diverse merit and talent, as it removes the support structures that help students from underrepresented backgrounds thrive. Trump’s administration, in their crusade against DEI, depicts these programs as divisive while, in reality, these initiatives aim to drive inclusivity. Trump’s administration is taking intentional steps to undergo reverse civil rights progress and is shielding it all as a color-blind meritocracy.
Responses from university leaders will likely vary by whether the university is private and what state it’s located in, but now more than ever, schools and institutions must resist the intimidation, fear, and confusion that these executive orders instill. It is time to double down on their commitment to equal opportunity, ensuring that everyone maintains the right to thrive.
Rania Jones ’27 (rjones@college.harvard.edu) is the Forum Editor of the Harvard Independent.