By SUSAN JONES
It’s hard to keep track of the flurry of executive orders coming out of the new Trump administration. They cover everything from a federal hiring freeze to declassifying the records concerning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Pitt Chancellor Joan Gabel told Senate Council on Jan. 23 that her office has set up a team to track what’s coming out of the White House, “and then extrapolating from those executive orders, what the impact is likely to be on us individually, as an institution, or on higher ed in general, while at the same time looking at what this means for different activities for any of us in our work.”
The same, she said, is happening at all of the national organizations in higher ed, such as the Association of Public Land Grant Universities and the Association of American Universities.
With less than a week into the new administration, Gabel said it’s too soon to know what those impacts will be.
“I know uncertainty is not ideal, and people would like us to have more certainty and be able to give specific answers,” Gabel said. “As we understand better and have the time to do the analysis, we will report out, but we haven't had the time yet. … We think it's better to have certain and clear answers, than to make partial answers. And so we ask for your indulgence as we undertake this analysis and get some expert insight into everything that's coming in.”
Already, there are several executive orders that could change how higher education operates. (Find all of the orders at whitehouse.gov.)
Eliminating DEI
Conservatives have long targeted diversity, equity and inclusion programs, saying they violate civil rights laws by favoring minorities and marginalized communities.
“The federal government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion,’” the order reads.
Since 2023, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports, 86 bills have been introduced in state legislatures that would either prohibit colleges from having diversity, equity and inclusion offices or staff; ban mandatory diversity training; forbid institutions to use diversity statements in hiring and promotion; or bar colleges from considering race, sex, ethnicity, or national origin in admissions or employment. Fourteen have been signed into law.
The Trump administration’s executive orders on DEI cover many areas, but specifically for higher education:
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The Department of Education — which is still awaiting a new leader (Linda McMahon, former WWE CEO is nominated) — is tasked with identifying up to nine institutions of higher education with endowments over $1 billion for potential “civil compliance investigations.” Other federal agencies also are asked to do this with businesses, nonprofits and foundations.
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Within 120 days, the attorney general and the secretary of education are instructed to issue guidance to all institutions of higher education that receive federal grants or participate in the federal student loan assistance program about what they need to do to comply with last year’s Supreme Court ruling banning the use of race-based criteria in admissions.
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The order also rescinded the the Equal Employment Opportunity order signed in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. It required federal contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.”
Other issues
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Trump’s executive order on gender identity said the government will only recognize “two sexes.” It takes aim at many programs that support LGBTQ people, particularly those who identify as transgender. It said that Title IX does not require “gender identity-based access to single-sex spaces,” and barred federal funds from being used “to promote gender ideology.” A federal judge had already struck down Title IX rules championed by the Biden administration that would have given LGBTQ students more protections.
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A separate directive from the Department of Homeland Security ended the restrictions that prohibited of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from conducting enforcement actions in “sensitive areas,” including elementary and secondary schools, colleges, hospitals and churches.
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Then there is the even larger issue of how the new administration will impact research funding coming from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Science reported this week that new restrictions for the Department of Health and Human Services, of which NIH is a part, include a communications pause, a freeze on hiring, and an indefinite ban on travel. This has resulted in the abrupt cancellation of meetings such as grant review panels.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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