Late last week, the Department of Education declared all race-related programs illegal and gave schools like Columbia College two weeks to end their DEI programs or risk losing federal funding. This includes student resources and financial aid.
Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, wrote in a letter to school and college administrators that treating students differently based on race violates the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on affirmative action.
When we broke the story on Tuesday, Feb. 18, the college did not yet have a response. Lambrini Lukidis, associate vice president of Strategic Communications and External Relations, told us that the college would communicate with the campus later this week.
We do know that Columbia is not alone in trying to figure out how to respond to the unprecedented expansion of President Trump’s attack on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Columbia can’t change its core values that quickly. Nor should it.
As a private institution, Columbia hasn’t had to scrub DEI references from its website as some public colleges and universities have already done, in response to Trump’s executive orders or state policy.
But it still relies on some federal funding like grants and resources. In Fall 2024, nearly half of Columbia’s student body (49%) received federal Pell Grants, according to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.
Students at Columbia also access the federally funded TRIO office and use federal work study funds for on-campus jobs.
It won’t be easy to fight back with vital resources for the college’s most vulnerable students at stake. However, the college must find ways to circumvent the new policy to maintain its commitment to DEI.
We are confident the college will still allow students to identify by the gender and name of their choice, regardless of Trump’s executive order to restrict gender-affirming care.
When she met with the Chronicle on Feb. 7, Senior Vice President and Provost Marcella David championed DEI within the college and what that meant during these times.
“I’m happy to continue to stand up and say that we should continue to do the things that we’re doing that promote diversity, equity and inclusion even if we then have to explain to other people what we’re doing is not discriminatory,” Davis told the Chronicle.
Columbia didn’t just start caring about DEI efforts. Although not called that in the beginning, the school was founded by two women at a time when it was rare for women to receive a higher education. Mary A. Blood and Ida Morey Riley were trailblazers in the movement of education for women and built a school to include more people in the college experience.
The college has always been forward-thinking and progressive. This is echoed through not only the student body but in the professors and faculty as well. In 2012, an event called Celebrating Columbia’s Radical History highlighted the experience of working in the free creative space of Columbia.
The college can fight these attacks on DEI by being transparent, holding open spaces for students and faculty to talk, supporting identity-based student organizations and offering as many resources as they can provide without federal aid.
Columbia was built and remains to this day an inclusive space for students seeking higher education in creative fields. Whether we call it DEI or something else, the collective community of the college must continue to uphold them.
Copy edited by Trinity Balboa
