A Tenuous Moment for Minority-Serving Institutions Under Trump

On his first day in office, President Donald Trump rescinded a slew of Biden-era executive orders and actions that he deemed “harmful.” In his order disbanding the initiatives, he slammed the former president for injecting diversity, equity and inclusion work “into our institutions,” calling DEI a “dangerous preferential hierarchy.” Among the programs Trump slashed were initiatives Biden created to support Hispanic-serving institutions and tribal colleges and foster greater collaboration between federal agencies and the institutions. Another initiative that included “breaking down barriers” to federal funding for predominantly Black and historically Black colleges also bit the dust. That same week, federal webpages with information about HSIs and tribal colleges went dark.