College student groups based on ethnicity or race could be in peril if the Trump Administration’s Department of Education is successful at expanding the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling regarding race-based affirmative action, the administration’s argument would thus center on applying the Court’s decision to every aspect of campus life.
According to The Hill, groups such as the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, are concerned about what could happen to those groups, including Black fraternities and sororities, which were originally developed in response to segregation and discrimination.
As the group’s CEO and president, Paulette Grandberry Russell said in a statement to the outlet, “There is legitimate concern that the new administration may seek to restrict student organizations, including registered student organizations, and perhaps even fraternities and sororities with a nondiscriminatory focus on race, ethnicity, gender, religion and other cultural identities that the DOE determines are prohibited.”
Likewise, Marybeth Gasman, the executive director at the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at Rutgers University, is similarly concerned about how the Trump Administration is choosing to apply the concept of race neutrality, which Gasman says doesn’t square with how the concept is supposed to work.
“I am concerned that the Trump administration could target student organizations that are racial affinity groups. They will claim they are enforcing ‘race neutrality’ — which makes no sense,” Gasman told The Hill, adding that “legal precedent strongly protects the right of free association per the First Amendment, which means that any attempts to end these organizations would end up in the courts.”
As BLACK ENTERPRISE previously reported, following the confirmation hearing of Trump’s pick to head the DOE, Linda McMahon, the department sent out a “Dear Colleague” letter.
Despite the letter’s lack of the force of law, it nonetheless presents institutions with an ultimatum to comply with the Trump Administration’s position on diversity, equity and inclusion or lose funding, and gave them 14 days to accomplish this task.
According to Craig Trainor, the acting secretary for civil rights at the Education Department, “The Department of Education will no longer allow education entities to discriminate on the basis of race. This isn’t complicated. When in doubt, every school should consult the SFFA legal test contained in the DCL: ‘If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law.’ Additional guidance on implementation is forthcoming.”
The positions of the Trump Administration’s Department of Education and those of American universities are in direct opposition and are going to set up a legal fight, one that universities need to be prepared for.
According to Sara Partridge, the associate director of higher education at the Center for American Progress, any action of the Trump Administration that would curtail federal funding for violations regarding what it sets forth about DEI would be unprecedented in the history of the United States of America.
“Typically, following a civil rights complaint, the Office of Civil Rights does an investigation. If they conclude that a violation has occurred, institutions are given the opportunity to voluntarily amend their policies. So, the dramatic step of actually taking federal
financial aid away from institutions would be very harmful to students, but historically, there has been a process for institutions to remedy any issues before it gets to that point,” Partridge said.She concluded, “So, it’s yet to be seen how this administration will use the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education, but to take away federal funding as a result of civil rights violations as this letter frames them would be completely unprecedented.”
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