Push back against anti-DEI efforts

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College student McKenna Kipp, from Dellwood, is upset by the notion that efforts to advance diversity, equity and inclusion and teach about race are under threat at her school. The 19-year-old sophomore, who attends Colorado State University, was shocked and saddened when she learned about a directive from the federal Department of Education that instructed her school to end all DEI initiatives by Friday, Feb. 28, or risk losing federal funds.

“I’m a political science major and I’m taking a course now called the Sociology of Race and Racism,” she said. “I’m learning so much from it — but whole categories of classes like this could be wiped out in the future if our school complies.”

Kipp is white. But that’s not the issue as she sees it. Several of her friends and coworkers, who are people of color, are threatened with the loss of important affinity groups that help them thrive. Furthermore, she surmises, as someone who lives with diabetes, she could also lose the student disability center on her campus.

The first notice from the university president said the school might be forced to comply with the directive because a significant amount of its funding comes from the federal government. However, a second notice couple of days later said that the school would find ways around it.

That’s but one example of the kind of pushback that is needed. Schools, colleges and universities must resist the Trump administration’s efforts to do away with initiatives to bring greater diversity, equity and inclusion to our schools.

The ill-advised guidance issued by the DOE on Feb. 14 gave schools until Friday to stop using race “in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.” That very broad description goes far beyond the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision upon which the ban is based. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, the court primarily addressed admissions.

Fortunately, there are other schools, arms of government and private companies that are standing strong and opposing the attacks on the fairness and inclusivity that benefit their students and constituents. The city of Rochester and its school district, for example, have said there are no plans to deviate from its current DEI-related initiatives.

The school district, which had a recent complaint about a program designed to increase diversity among teachers, said it also has no plans to deviate. The mayor says the city’s inclusiveness programs will continue as do public school leaders.

“RPS will continue this work, and the reason is that these efforts are critical to achieving our mission of helping all of our students thrive in school and in life,” Superintendent Kent Pekel said in a memo to the community last month.

And when asked about the letter of ultimatum from the DOE, a University of Minnesota spokesman referred to a previously posted online statement: “We want to assure everyone in our community that we value the activities that support diversity and inclusion, which strengthen our teaching and research. We are not rolling back diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University, and we are not making preemptive changes to our existing programs.”

Last week, a federal judge in Maryland temporarily blocked two of President Donald Trump’s executive orders related to stamping out DEI, arguing that they violated free speech laws. Under the order, the administration must not pause, terminate or change contracts or grants that it considers DEI-related.

That’s consistent with what several state attorneys general, including Minnesota’s AG Keith Ellison, are doing by wisely challenging the legality and constitutionality of some of the federal moves.

Minnesotans and other Americans should not stand by and let efforts designed to promote truth telling, diversity and equity be rolled back and falsely derided as discriminatory.

Kipp, who graduated from Mahtomedi High School, said ending the initiatives would move America in the wrong direction. “Racial issues and racism will only get worse if we pretend that they’re not there.”