‘Impossible position’: How Connecticut colleges are handling DEI ban, possible funding cuts

CT Insider – Friday, February 21, 2025
By Natasha Sokoloff

Connecticut colleges and universities are starting to feel the fallout of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and a recent letter from the U.S. Department of Education has raised the stakes even higher.

The Education Department warned schools that schools have two weeks to get rid of DEI initiatives or risk losing federal funding, according to a Feb. 14 letter to American educational institutions receiving federal funds. For both K-12 and higher education institutions in Connecticut, who rely on federal funds for a plethora of programs, the clock is ticking as they attempt to interpret what education leaders have described as a vague and threatening directive from the Trump administration.

“I think our institutions of higher education are put in this impossible position,” said Democratic state Sen. Derek Slap, co-chair of the Higher Education Committee. “Because I know they have a responsibility to protect funding. I mean, that impacts tuition, impacts pretty much every facet of life on a college campus… But at the same time, they want to be true to their values and to the values of the student bodies.”

The letter calls out schools for what it describes as pervasive discrimination in education by using race as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring, training and other institutional programming that may fall under DEI. Citing the Supreme Court’s 2023 affirmative action decision declaring race cannot be a factor in college admissions, the Feb. 14 memo signals a new, sweeping interpretation of antidiscrimination laws, in which a school’s consideration of race in any aspect of education, from scholarships to extracurriculars, would be grounds for losing federal dollars.

Just days prior to the new memo, Yale University and other Connecticut institutions were staring down a potential loss of millions of dollars in research funding related to the Trump administration’s larger effort to slash government programs. Now, the letter opening with “Dear Colleague” has Yale, the University of Connecticut and other schools in limbo again.

“The university is working to understand the scope and implications of the letter and remains committed to the mission, to the principles of free expression and academic excellence, and to supporting the community,” said Karen Peart, a spokesperson for Yale University.

Slap said the lack of specifics in the letter and the current uncertainty about how to handle it heightened concern further.

“There’s a lot of anxiety,” he said.

Like Yale, the University of Connecticut was also assessing what the new guidance could mean.

“UConn is continuing to evaluate the Dear Colleague Letter and any potential impacts it may have on UConn,” said UConn spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz. “However, UConn has long been required to comply with federal civil rights laws and believes its enduring commitment to DEI fully comports with existing law.”

In the coming days, Slap said he expected to see some tweaks among certain programs in higher education, but it was hard to predict when so many questions remained.

“I think nobody really knows, like, what will suffice,” he said, “if it’s just the change of a title, as an example, that kind of thing, but what’s happening on the campus doesn’t change that much, you know, is that okay? Or are they going to be really having a microscope? I don’t really know.”

The Connecticut Office of Higher Education has not sent out any guidance to institutions of higher education regarding the letter, according to OHE spokesperson Noele Kidney. OHE is tasked with ensuring that institutions of higher education, private colleges and universities and private career schools, comply with state statute, Kidney said, and the institutions will likely receive guidance from their Board of Directors or other leadership on any federal funding freezes and/or policy directives.

While the letter stops short of naming all of the exact university programs or funds that would be impacted, it states that federal law prohibits the use of race in decisions around “admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”

In one example, the letter says that it would be illegal for a school “to eliminate standardized testing to achieve a desired racial balance or to increase racial diversity.”

Many universities have strayed away from the standardized test requirement in recent years, including UConn, which is currently test optional. “At UConn, we understand that one test may not accurately define a student’s academic progress and potential, which is why we are allowing first-year applicants the choice to submit standardized test results through the fall 2026 admission cycle,” its website says. “No admission decision shall be impacted, and no student disadvantaged, if a standardized test score is not provided.”

The Education Department would assess compliance with the new guidance no later than 14 days from Feb. 14, according to the letter. “Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding.”

The warning also created a complicated situation for the state legislature, Slap said, as they scrambled to figure out how those potential funding gaps could be filled.

“You know, we can’t ask Connecticut taxpayers to pick up the tab if the federal government withdraws its support,” he said, “when it comes to Medicaid, or when it comes to funding, to higher education. I mean, it’s just not, it’s not tenable.”

While the 14-day deadline looms, some universities, including Sacred Heart University, have already gotten funds pulled as part of the Trump administration’s broader crackdown on DEI.

The Department of Education revoked millions of dollars last week from a Sacred Heart program training teachers in Bridgeport and Stamford. A spokesperson for the university told CT Insider that it will need to either close down the program or find another funding source for it to continue.

And Sacred Heart isn’t the only Connecticut university at risk of losing grants, as a U.S. Senate report recently flagged thousands of National Science Foundation grants that go to higher education institutions for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives or “neo-Marxist class warfare propaganda.”

The report, led by Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, identified over 3,400 grants, totaling more than $2.05 billion in federal funding, including dozens of grants and millions of dollars that go to Connecticut schools. Cruz has requested “significant scrutiny of awards listed in the database,” according to a release. The National Science Foundation is currently reviewing grant compliance with Trump’s DEI executive orders.

The report flagged around $4.7 million in Yale’s National Science Foundation grants, including funds that go towards a number of projects from research in robotics and engineering to studies on parenting and early childhood education, according to the database.

More than $6 million in UConn grants are also in the database, including more than one million dollars for a project on engaging underrepresented populations in environmental action, as well as funds for building a biological science research tool on organs and tissues. Grants at Sacred Heart, Southern Connecticut State University, University of New Haven and Fairfield University are also flagged.

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