Ajay Suresh via Wikimedia Commons

On Friday, the Department of Education released clarifications to the Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter, which instructed schools to terminate all race-conscious programs.

The new guidance, published as an FAQ, appears to reverse several aspects of the original letter but still lacks details regarding how the department aims to enforce the policy. Programs focused on cultures, heritages and areas of the world, as well as educational, cultural or historical observances such as Black History Month, are allowed so long as they do not restrict or discriminate based on race.

The FAQ document was released exactly two weeks after the original letter, which requested the termination of “using race in decisions” in all “aspects of campus life” within 14 days and threatened the loss of federal funding if the programs were not terminated.

The Department of Education clarified that the department can only punish schools in certain circumstances, citing the Department of Education Organization Act, which “prohibit[s] the Department from exercising control over the content of school curricula.”

The University spokesperson declined to comment on the DOE’s new clarifications and directed the News to statements previously made by University President Maurie McInnis and Provost Scott Strobel.

Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis previously told the News shortly after the original letter was released that Yale’s cultural centers would likely not be affected and that immediate action to comply with the guidance was not necessary.

McInnis told the News last week that she believed some Trump administration’s orders, including the Feb. 14 letter, lacked legal standing. The original “Dear Colleague” letter stated that it “does not have the force and effect of law.”

Duncan Hosie LAW ’21, an appellate lawyer, told the News that the softened guidance was to be expected, especially given the aggressiveness of the original letter.

“I think the initial letter that the Department of Education released was so scandalous that it was almost inevitable. They would have to walk back some of the hard edges of it,” Hosie told the News “This guidance clearly was a result of the confusion and chaos unleashed by that letter, and I was glad to see the administration walk away from some of the most extreme parts of that letter, unfortunately FAQ doesn’t resolve all the concerns about it.”

Prior to Friday’s FAQ, the American Federation of Teachers — a teachers’ union — and the American Sociological Association sued the Trump administration for violating the First and Fifth Amendments in their “Dear Colleague” letter. Hosie said the FAQ’s softened language could, in part, be due to this and other legal challenges to the decision.

Furthermore, Hosie said that confusion about legal authority and policy may be a strategy by the administration to lure universities to voluntarily comply with orders that may be legally dubious.

Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University removed some DEI initiatives and statements from their websites following instructions and threats by the Trump administration even before the Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter was published.

“I would say that the changes we see in the Department of Education parallel the larger changes of the Trump administration,” Hosie told the News. “The administration benefits from that because some institutions will comply, even if they don’t need to.”

The Civil Rights Act was signed into law on July 2, 1964.