Updates: April 5, 2025
Federal
The Department of Education published FAQs on the Dear Colleague letter that orders education institutions to cease DEI activities or lose federal funding, with more detail on how the SFFA decision will be interpreted across nearly all education programs, not only admissions, and also how they will assess for racial discrimination in programs and policies that are race neutral.
The Department of Justice launched an investigation of UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Irvine and Stanford, claiming violation of SFFA ruling and racial discrimination in admissions.
The State Department is continuing to track, detain and deport deport non-citizen students and faculty.
The Department of Health and Human Services experienced major staffing cuts and also continued to terminate grants, and particularly, training programs. Many R25, T34, F31, T32, K01, and K99/R00, including many within NGIMS, have been terminated early (i.e. unlawfully) or not renewed. This will require laying off staff and ending programs across entire pathways from undergraduate, graduate, postdoctoral fellows, to our junior faculty.
State
The University of California Board of Regents ordered the UCs to end required standalone statements of contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion, in recruitment and hiring (not all campuses required statements, either). Although they did not ban the option of voluntary statements outright, the revised application system has made eliminated the possibility of candidates uploading a statement, even if a candidate wishes to do so. During interviews, search committees and interviewers are not allowed to directly ask about a candidate’s contributions, either. The decision at UC is notable because unlike targeted Ivy League institutions, or public universities in schools with bans on DEI, the University of California has not been singled out by the Administration for this practice, nor has it been moved by state legislation.
