Christina Lee, Head Photography Editor

In recent years, Yale has vocally supported diversity, equity and inclusion policies in its messaging and established diversity programs and committees. Now, the University may be forced to pull back as President Donald Trump attempts to make such programs illegal or revoke federal funding if they continue.

On Jan. 21, one day after his inauguration, Trump issued an executive order requiring executive agencies and federally funded institutions to terminate all race- or gender-based diversity programs that could violate federal civil rights laws. On Jan. 27, a memo moved to freeze federal funding to review whether programs align with “the President’s priorities,” such as eliminating DEI initiatives, before the White House budget office rescinded the order Wednesday. In an interview Wednesday, University President Maurie McInnis said to expect more executive orders from the federal government that may threaten Yale’s programs and funding.

After widespread advocacy in 2020 called for institutions to create diversity programs, Yale committed fully to DEI policies. Former University President Peter Salovey formed the Committee on Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging and created Belonging at Yale, which has become the University’s main arm facilitating diversity initiatives. In 2022, the University kicked off a five-year DEI plan.

Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis told the News he does not believe that Trump’s new policies would directly affect Yale’s “educational mission” but that the University’s “research mission and graduate education” could be impacted.

According to Lewis, ongoing research at Yale that uses federal funding to study issues related to diversity “may have to be re-evaluated.” Last week, Trump directed federal science agencies to cancel all scheduled meetings, effectively suspending the review of the National Institutes of Health grant applications. The president also expressed a willingness to reduce climate spending and eradicate funding for DEI initiatives.

Lewis said that the University would be “careful that all programs comply with federal law” in its response to all of Trump’s executive orders, citing how the University changed its policies after the fall of affirmative action so that admission officers no longer have access to applicants’ self-identified race or ethnicity.

When asked whether Yale will amend the language it uses about diversity in response to Trump, Lewis said, “There might be tweaks here or there, but in general, we try and use language that is broad, and — if I can use the expression — inclusive, and so I don’t think we’ll be radically changing anything.” 

According to Lewis, Yale’s long-term goals remain committed to a “strong and diverse community with excellence across all dimensions.” He also affirmed that Yale’s cultural centers stand at no risk, given their clear role as centers for support and availability to a diverse student body. 

University administrators who run diversity programs did not respond to requests for comment.

Gary Désir, chair of the ASCEND Committee — a Yale initiative that facilitates collaborations with faculty at HBCUs — initially accepted an interview request from the News on Monday, then canceled the meeting. After multiple requests to comment, Désir referred the News to a statement from ASCEND Committee Co-Chair Lakia Scott that discussed accomplishments from the past year without addressing Trump’s executive orders, on behalf of both ASCEND and Belonging at Yale. The Office of Institutional Equity and Accessibility also did not respond to a request to comment.

In early interviews, after she assumed the presidency, McInnis voiced explicit support for maintaining diversity at Yale. In the Wednesday interview, when asked whether DEI is still a priority for Yale, McInnis responded, “We at Yale have always cared about the well-being of all members of our community, and we will continue to care about all members of our community.”

When asked whether Yale will defend its DEI policies in the face of Trump’s orders threatening to revoke federal funding, McInnis said that “it’s premature to say” as the University doesn’t yet know the full impact of the orders. She continued, “We will understand what the impact could be to Yale, what the federal law actually requires, and then we will formulate our responses from that.”

Duncan Hosie LAW ’21, an appellate lawyer and writer, stated that given the ferocity and speed at which the Trump administration has announced its new policies, the federal government will only grow more radical in its efforts to sequester Yale.

He anticipates this particularly following the 2020 lawsuit Trump launched against Yale, accusing the University of discriminating against white and Asian American applicants in its undergraduate admissions process, which was dropped by the U.S. Department of Justice after former President Joe Biden took office. 

“What I see happening is a pincer movement, where in one direction you have the Trump DOJ pressuring with the threat of formal government lawsuits, and on the other, you have conservative legal groups led by Ed Blum and similar organizations scrutinizing everything Yale does,” Hosie said. “There’ll be both formal, top-down pressure from the government and then external pressure from these outside institutions that are coordinating with the government to make sure Yale drops any type of DEI program.”

Hosie believes that though the Trump administration’s actions are framed in opposition to DEI, they encompass a larger goal seeking to unravel diversity programs tracing back to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He noted that no past Republican administration has had the same desire to purge diversity programs as Trump.

Civil rights attorney Alex Taubes LAW ’15 noted that oftentimes executive orders passed on the first day of administration aren’t always “well thought out” and lack the deliberation of “hearings, fact finding and comments from affected parties that normal government regulations go through.”

According to Taubes, this makes Trump’s order vulnerable to legal challenges. 

Even though Trump has moved the Supreme Court to the right by appointing conservative judges, the Court’s conservative rulings may also serve in the University’s favor, according to Hosie. The overturn of the Chevron doctrine — which had courts defer to federal agencies’ expertise in rulemaking — “gives Liberals opportunities to challenge the executive orders the Trump administration has issued.” 

Legal resistance wouldn’t be unprecedented, said Hosie. In 2017, universities led by Princeton sued the Trump administration for attempting to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which protects undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, arguing the act would harm university students.

Yet the more likely scenario, Hosie said, is for universities to try to reduce scrutiny of the programs based on the principle that “not much is to be gained from drawing attention” and that the better strategy is to “comply.”

In a Wednesday interview, McInnis shared that the University prioritizes working with legislators behind the scenes to advocate for Yale’s mission while limiting public statements. 

When asked whether the University may consider legal action in response to arising federal orders, McInnis said that the Office of General Counsel will “consider whether they think they have standing, whether there is a case to bring, whether there’s an appropriate legal argument to make.”

“Right now is an extremely perilous time for higher education in America,” said Hosie. “This is just the opening salvo of a larger campaign to go after Yale and like-minded institutions. Unfortunately, there’s a lot more to come.” 

Trump is in his second term as president.

Karla Cortes contributed reporting.