Washington — Donald Trump’s administration has warned of cuts in federal funding for academic institutions and universities if they continue with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes that the new US president has attempted to dismantle in his early days in office.
Trump has issued executive orders since taking office on January 20 to target DEI in the federal government and private sector.
Rights advocates say DEI programmes help uplift marginalised communities by addressing historic inequities. Trump and his allies call the programmes antimerit and discriminatory.
“The department [of education] intends to take appropriate measures to assess compliance with the applicable statutes and regulations based on the understanding embodied in this letter beginning no later than 14 days from today’s date, including antidiscrimination requirements that are a condition of receiving federal funding,” the department said in a letter.
The letter was reported earlier by Axios on Monday. It was dated Friday. It advised education institutions to comply with civil rights laws and cease efforts to circumvent restrictions, including by ending reliance on third-party contractors for such prohibitions.
“Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding,” the letter said.
DEI programmes have been part of workplace diversity efforts to ensure fairer representation for groups seen as historically marginalised, such as African Americans, LGBTQ+ community members, women, disabled people and other ethnic minorities in the US.
DEI efforts picked up pace, including in the private sector, in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.
Reuters
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