After Sweeping Anti-DEI Guidance, What Should Colleges Do?

Late Friday night, long after most people had settled in for a long Presidents’ Day weekend, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights declared in a four-page letter that any race-based policies or programming in K-12 schools and colleges were unlawful. The letter targeted “every facet of academia,” from scholarships and academic prizes to campus cultural centers and even graduation ceremonies. If institutions fail to comply in 14 days, they risk losing federal funding.

By the following morning, the letter had spread fear and indignation throughout the American education system.

If the OCR’s threats are carried out—which would be unprecedented for the office—higher ed institutions could lose out on billions in funding for research grants, student financial aid and institutional support, undermining decades of work to improve success and access for marginalized students. At the same time, it’s unclear if all or even most of the letter’s dictates will hold up in court. Brian Rosenberg, former president of Macalester College and a visiting professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, told Inside Higher Ed the letter was “truly dystopian.”

College presidents now face a fraught task: deciding what to do next.