Good morning, and welcome to Monday, February 3. Katherine Mangan wrote the first feature in today’s Briefing. Julia Piper compiled Comings and Goings. Rick Seltzer wrote the rest. Get in touch: dailybriefing@chronicle.com.

The Race to Preserve DEI

The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is grappling with tough questions about the future of its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in what could prove to be a bellwether for the fate of many of the nation’s diversity programs in the Trump era.

Even before President Trump took office, a senior administrator at the University of Michigan warned that big changes could be coming. At a December Board of Regents meeting, the vice president for government relations said the incoming Trump administration would use “whatever tools they have” to get rid of DEI — at Michigan and elsewhere. The university, he said, “may have to trim sails” or “tack left” or “tack right.”

Michigan has one of the most extensive university commitments to DEI, and what Trump’s crackdown will mean is still not clear. The magnitude of the challenge of complying, though, is coming into focus. Days after taking office, Trump fired off a series of executive orders banning “radical and wasteful” DEI activities and urging government workers to turn in anyone trying to hide such efforts.

Trump’s war on DEI has supercharged pressures on colleges to either shut down programs or shift focus from racial diversity to socioeconomic, or class-based diversity.

• Two of Michigan’s most popular DEI programs — Wolverine Pathways and the Go Blue Guarantee — offer college preparatory classes, free and reduced tuition, and other support to students from underresourced communities.
• Regents have assured faculty members and students worried about potential DEI cuts that those programs were safe. They even expanded the free-tuition program to include families earning up to $125,000.

But as Michigan knows well, race-neutral approaches have their limits. The state banned affirmative action in 2006, and the percentage of Black students promptly plunged, despite millions of dollars spent attracting low-income students without considering race, the university said in 2022.

• Turns out that there were nearly six times as many white students as Black students from low-income families with test scores that would make them competitive applicants. Income, the university argued, is a poor proxy for race when seeking a racially diverse campus.

Stay tuned for exactly how Michigan officials plan to change. This spring, university officials will propose a budget that will signal the university’s DEI plans. Regents, who have made clear that they’d like to see a smaller administrative footprint, have the final vote.

At least some regents want more money for race-neutral programs. A Republican and a Democrat on the board told me that they’d like money to be shifted from administrative salaries to programs that help all low-income and first-generation students. At the same time, some faculty and students I interviewed said that until students of color feel welcomed and represented in sufficient numbers, they’ll continue to be hard to recruit and retain.

The bigger question: Michigan DEI officials say their program protects the interests of first-generation, low-income, and other underrepresented students and that cuts would hurt more than students from racial minority backgrounds. But given the accelerating national backlash against DEI and the latest threats to the university’s funding, will the university decide it’s time to take out the scalpel?

Trump news dump

• It’s 2020 all over again for Title IX: The U.S. Department of Education on Friday confirmed it will use regulations that went into effect at the end of President Trump’s first term to enforce the federal law banning sex-based discrimination at schools and colleges. This was expected after a court blocked a Biden-administration rewrite just as the Democrat was preparing to leave office; the court considered the attempts to extend Title IX protections on the basis of gender identity an overreach. Friday’s guidance confirms the removal of much-contested rules that sought to require trans students to be able to use facilities matching their gender identities, and the return of equally controversial live-hearing and cross-examination requirements for sexual-misconduct investigations. (U.S. Department of Education, The Chronicle)
• Defense secretary bars race-conscious admissions, DEI instruction at service academies: A memo from Pete Hegseth last week said no part of the Department of Defense can have “sex-based, race-based, or ethnicity-based goals for organizational composition, academic admission, or career fields.” It also prohibited curricula from including critical race theory, “gender ideology,” and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Hegseth had already signaled such moves, which throw into question the status of lawsuits that challenge military academies’ exemption from the Supreme Court’s ban on race-conscious admissions. (Stars and Stripes, Reuters, The Chronicle)
• Second court order halts funding freeze: U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell Jr. wrote that the Trump administration is withholding money even though it technically rescinded the controversial Office of Management and Budget memo that ordered the federal-funding freeze. The judge also found it likely that the administration’s impoundment violates the Constitution and federal law, and that it could cause harm to entities that receive federal funding. The case was brought by Democratic attorneys general and is separate from a lawsuit brought by private entities, the latter of which prompted another judge to block the freeze earlier last week. (U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, The Chronicle)
• Where are postdocs’ federally funded salaries? A National Science Foundation email indicated salaries were suspended last week to make sure “only eligible activities” were being funded, even after the Trump administration rescinded a memo ordering a wide-ranging funding freeze. Even payment requests put in on Tuesday, before the funding freeze was to take effect, have reportedly been canceled, leaving some researchers unsure how they will pay their bills. An NSF spokesperson said the agency is “working expeditiously to conduct a comprehensive review of our projects” to make sure they align with executive orders from President Trump. (STAT)
• NYU mom pushes for deportations: As President Trump issued executive orders targeting pro-Palestinian protesters, Elizabeth Rand posted in her 62,000-member Facebook group, Mothers Against College Antisemitism, calling on “everyone you know who is at a university to file complaints about foreign students and faculty who support Hamas.” The American Association of University Professors chapter at New York University wants a review of communications between Rand and NYU’s administration after she bragged online about her group’s ability to influence the institution. A spokesperson said the university doesn’t monitor parents on social media. (The Intercept)

Quote of the day

“King was seen as radical in his time.”

— Myth Moos, co-president of Chapman University’s Students for Justice in Palestine, objected to the institution stripping the group of a Martin Luther King Jr. Community Award it received last month.

Chapman’s president said the award does not represent the university’s “official position,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

Quick hits

• Judge reopens classroom to LSU law professor: A state judge issued a temporary restraining order against Louisiana State University, reversing for at least a week the institution’s decision to remove Ken Levy from teaching as it investigates the tenured law professor, who says he was removed for criticizing Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, in class. LSU will continue its investigation, said a spokesperson, who also encouraged faculty members to “conduct themselves in a civil manner” with respect for others’ opinions. (Louisiana Illuminator, The Times Picayune)
• Fixed college basketball games? A federal investigation has reportedly been opened into accusations of fixed men’s basketball games at the college and professional levels. Up to seven college programs are said to be under scrutiny for allegations that players bet on their own games or tried to influence the outcomes of games last season. (Sports Illustrated)
• Layoffs at U. of New Orleans: About 30 employees lost their jobs, saving the public institution $1.9 million as it works to close a $10-million budget gap. Administrators previously announced furloughs and administrative consolidations. Additional cuts will be considered after officials tabulate spring enrollment and disburse financial aid. (Louisiana Illuminator)
• Talladega College trims more sports: The private Alabama institution is shutting down its golf, indoor track, men’s volleyball, and acrobatics and tumbling programs, deeming them unsustainable. It previously axed its women’s gymnastics team, which competed for just one season but had drawn headlines for being the first gymnastics program at a historically Black college to win an NCAA meet. (WVTM, Associated Press)
• U. of Alaska negotiations finally yield deal: A union representing nearly 1,100 faculty members and postdoctoral fellows agreed to a tentative three-year contract that includes annual across-the-board raises. The bargaining team agreed to accept lower salary increases than it wanted in exchange for not having to pay a higher share of the cost of health-care benefits. The agreement comes after the union and administrators declared an impasse and brought in a federal mediator. (Alaska Beacon)
• Frostburg State president dies: Ronald Nowaczyk, 74, died of cancer on Friday. Just two weeks before, he announced that he would step down from leading the Maryland university at the end of January, citing his health. (The Baltimore Banner)

Comings and goings

• Ibram X. Kendi, founder and director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, has been named director of the Howard University Institute for Advanced Study.
• Antonio Merlo, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science at New York University, has been named president of Drexel University.
• Nicole Sampson has been named provost and chief academic officer at the University of Rochester after serving as interim provost since August 2024.

To submit a new-hire announcement, email people@chronicle.com.

Footnote

Last week’s Footnotes shook free a few more reader recommendations for good television shows about college. Today’s comes from Robert C. Lagueux, vice provost at Berklee College of Music. He writes:

“Who could forget the two seasons of Boston Common (1996–1997)? Set at ‘Randolph Harrington College’ (a barely disguised Emerson College), it had everything the late ‘90s wanted in a sitcom: fish-out-of-water comedy, sibling rivalry, and a will-they-won’t-they love story.

“I remember it mostly because of my burning crush on star Traylor Howard, and because the opening titles were a mystifying mash-up of standard-issue Boston B-roll intercut with hand-held camera shots of lead Anthony Clark playing in the snow, accompanied by a Dave Matthews Band sound-alike theme song meant — I guess — to represent the lead characters’ Virginia origins.

“TV Tropes has the best summary, and no one will regret spending 30 seconds with the opening title sequence. Some internet hero has even posted the entire pilot episode.”

📺 Do you know a good TV show about college? Bonus points for dated opening credit sequences. Email the show’s name and why you like it to dailybriefing@chronicle.com. Include your name and title, and your submission could appear in a future Footnote.