Alexis Lam, Staff Photographer

In an interview with the News, Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis said that the cultural centers and other race-conscious programs at Yale are legal and compliant with recent guidance under the Department of Education. Student leaders of race-based affinity groups, however, still feel the policies may harm their communities and work.

On Feb. 14, the Department of Education issued a “Dear Colleague” Letter, which stated that federal law prohibits the use of race in decisions surrounding admissions, hiring, promotions, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies and other parts of student, academic or campus life. Universities that do not scrap race-conscious programs by Feb. 28 may lose federal funding, the letter threatened.

“I’m very comfortable that the cultural centers are legal. They’ve always been open to everybody,” Lewis told the News. “At the same time, we’re looking at the legal language to understand any ramifications. I can’t predict exactly what the outcome of that would be, but I think we’re in a pretty good place from the point of view of being able to defend our existing programs.”

According to Lewis, noncompliance with the letter would threaten Yale’s Pell Grant funding, which provides financial aid for undergraduate students. 

However, he explained that for students who receive full financial aid, around 90 percent of it is institutional aid and 10 percent of it is Pell Grant-based aid. Though it would have a “deep impact” on the University’s ability to provide financial aid, “it would not affect current students directly in the same way,” Lewis said.

Lewis also assured that cultural graduation “celebrations” and pre-orientation programs such as Orientation for International Students and Cultural Connections would remain. 

Yale also offers grants and fellowships aimed at encouraging minority students toward certain career and summer opportunities, such as the Mellon Mays Fellowship, the Woodbridge Fellowship and the Edward A. Bouchet Undergraduate Fellows Program. Lewis said that these programs have been re-evaluated since the past Trump administration raised concerns about them.

“Underneath it all, our core mission is to welcome members of our community and give them a feeling of belonging,” Lewis said. “No matter what you think of the letter and no matter partisan politics and so on, that part of our mission is going to remain the same forever, I hope.”

Yale has 82 clubs listed under the “Diversity and Representation” category on the YaleConnect club register. While Lewis explained that Trump’s policies are unlikely to cause significant changes to these clubs, several student leaders said anti-diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, sentiment still causes harm.

Messages about striking down DEI say that communities of color do not deserve their own space, said Oyshi Monawarah ’28, a co-moderator of the Asian American Student Alliance, or AASA.

Alejandro Rojas ’26, president of the Black Men’s Union, told the News how the messaging of Trump’s orders will impact students of color, even if the policy doesn’t successfully eliminate the groups. 

“Students at this school internalize stereotypes from this national movement to eliminate DEI,” he said. “That’s scary because it makes the environment, academically and socially, a lot harder for kids who might already be struggling to integrate into spaces here.”

Rojas emphasized how integral the Black Men’s Union has been to his experience at Yale, helping him to “form relationships and be successful” and “just get through the day.” 

Amber Nobriga ’27, the president of the Indigenous Peoples of Oceania, or IPO, cultural group, wrote that she feels “threatened” by Trump’s letter. She is particularly concerned by the perception of affinity groups as “exclusionary space.” As leader of IPO, Nobriga works to make the club a “place of safety for Pasifika students.” 

“However, it’s important to recognize that our communities have and will always be resilient,” she wrote. “I anticipate in the event of the executive order being weaponized against IPO and Indigenous spaces, there will be creative solutions to meet and resist it.”

Dorothy Ha ’28, the secretary of Yale’s Queer Student Alliance, or QSA, also said that she finds Trump’s anti-DEI measures “deeply concerning.”

She added, though, that she knows Yale is committed to “preserving freedom of expression” and that it will “stand firm” in protecting identity-based spaces, such as QSA.

Jairus Rhoades ’26, a leader of Yale’s American Indian Science and Engineering Society, Yale’s chapter of the national society “advancing Indigenous people in STEM studies and careers,” explained that while he “trusts” in Yale’s administration to defend the existence of affinity groups, he worries for friends at other schools where the administration may be more amiable to Trump’s policies.

Rhoades concluded that even without funding, his community would find a way to come together and support each other.

“You can strip away the funding. You strip away the grants associated with the organization,” he said. “But the biggest thing is that we have this community here. As concerned as I am about the future, as long as we have the basic ability to come together as a group, we’ll figure it out.”

In 1989, John Bathke ’93 (Diné) founded the Association of Native Americans at Yale, the first official group dedicated to Native students.