The University of Cincinnati’s (UC) president recently issued a statement to the campus community, announcing that the school will start removing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the wake of President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI executive order.
“I write to you today to share some challenging truths about the future of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at the University of Cincinnati,” UC President Neville G. Pinto wrote on Feb. 21. “As you are no doubt aware, the federal government has effectively outlawed DEI programs and practices within government entities, including public universities nationwide.”
Pinto referenced President Trump’s anti-DEI executive order as well as the Department of Education’s (DOE) “Dear Colleague” letter in which it announced the enforcement timeline, before stating that the school would act to comply with the federal directives.
Pinto explained that the university must take “steps” to “ensure compliance” in order to maintain the significant federal funding that the university receives.
“Given the extent to which our university, like most educational institutions, relies on federal funding to deliver and sustain our core mission, it is untenable to operate as if noncompliance with these directives is an effective option,” Pinto wrote. “Ohio public and federally supported institutions like ours have little choice but to follow the laws that govern us.”
“Our leaders have begun evaluating jobs and duties related to DEI and examining our DEI programming, initiatives and projects to bring all areas into compliance,” Pinto explains about the removal of DEI from the school. “In addition, we have begun removing references to DEI principles across university websites, social media and collateral materials.”
In the letter to the school community, Pinto concludes that the school will begin to “unwind many years of DEI efforts under an extremely compressed timeline.”
In January, President Trump issued an anti-DEI order that has caused a number of universities to remove DEI pages online.
As an example of this, the University of Notre Dame also revised its DEI website to remove references to “diversity.” The University of Michigan’s School of Nursing also removed a diversity-related page, which contained a DEI statement explaining that the school was ostensibly “built on diversity.”
The U.S. Federal Government is not the only entity to change policy to be more stringent with regards to DEI.
The Ohio Senate recently passed Senate Bill 1, which eliminates “any orientation or training course regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion,” “the continuation of existing diversity, equity, and inclusion offices or departments,” “establishing new diversity, equity, and inclusion offices or departments,” and “using diversity, equity, and inclusion in job descriptions.”
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Cincinnati for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
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