President Donald Trump signed an executive order Jan. 21 to curb diversity, equity and inclusion practices in higher education institutions, signaling negative impacts for Boston University students.
The order, titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” aims to halt DEI practices in various federal, corporate and higher education institutions and create a plan to “deter DEI programs or principles.”
This plan will open investigations into “institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars.” BU, with an endowment of over $3 billion, falls into this category.
The executive order also plans to push higher education institutions to comply with the Supreme Court decision of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which found that Harvard’s use of affirmative action in admissions decisions violated the Fourteenth Amendment.
The executive order also revoked the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, which protects individuals from discrimination in the workplace.
“The University is currently reviewing and assessing the recently issued Executive Orders and anticipate additional guidance to follow,” BU Spokesperson Colin Riley wrote in an email to The Daily Free Press.
Senior Sean Waddington, treasurer of BU College Democrats, said it is difficult to anticipate what will happen to universities like BU in the wake of the executive order since they rely on the federal government for funding.
“We have always been in lockstep with federal policies to ensure that we’re in good standing with the federal government, regardless of the administration,” Waddington said.
Student Government President Akwasi Antwi said the executive order will have “devastating consequences” on diversity at the University.
In September 2024, BU reported its Black student enrollment dropped from 9% to 3% after the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action.
Antwi posted an open letter to the University on the Student Government Instagram page Oct. 25 addressing the change in student demographics after the BU administration refused to let him email it using the Student Government account.
“I have very little confidence, with the pressure of the federal government, that BU is going to have the interest of racial diversity at the top of mind,” Antwi said. “They’ve already shown that racial interest isn’t really at the top of their mind when considering their response to the Black student population dipping.”
Senior Nathan Duong, president of BU’s Asian Student Union, said Trump’s executive order makes him worried about the future of student centers such as the LGBTQ+ Resource Center and the Newbury Center.
“If prospective students see BU bending the knee to these executive orders and potentially rolling back its DEI initiatives and student resource centers, then underrepresented students are not going to be incentivized to apply to these institutions,” Duong said.
Antwi said he expects Black faculty members to be affected in the same way as Black students. He said BU Professor Ibram X. Kendi was the reason he applied to BU in the first place.
Kendi was the founding director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is leaving the University to join Howard University, and the CAR will close when its BU charter expires on June 30.
Junior Abigail Rosario, president of Alianza Latina, said she is scared to see how the faculty at BU might be impacted.
“This [year] is the first time ever that I’ve had a Latine professor that wasn’t a Spanish teacher,” Rosario said. “The staff of Latine, Latinx professors is already so limited.”
Rosario said she fears what will happen to her and other Latino students who participate in work-study if Trump decides to cut the Department of Education.
“There’s a lot of things that I couldn’t afford or do at Boston University if I had not had a job on campus,” Rosario said.
In response to the executive order, Antwi hopes the University upholds its promises, including the task force BU President Melissa Gilliam announced she would form to research the decrease in Black student enrollment.
“I haven’t seen any action from her on formulating a task force, or even being eager enough to address the issue and realize how big of an issue that this is, that Black students will not be able to go to a university,” Antwi said.
Rosario said a merit-based approach in the executive order ignores systemic oppression.
“We have to think about things that a lot of other students don’t have to think about,” Rosario said. “It is fearful that we might see that number of people that look like us, speak like us, come from places like us and share the same experiences as us, disappear in the classroom.”
