So much to talk about. So little time.
As a university professor, I feel it is my sworn duty in this post to outline the assault taking place on education under this regime.
I have talked a lot about diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. I like to actually say the words or write them out because I think it’s too easy to lose the significance of them if we just use initials. Feel free to look back at my earlier posts about diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Yesterday, in yet another remarkable slide towards authoritarianism, the Department of Education announced that 45 universities are under investigation for “allegedly awarding impermissible race-based scholarships and one university for allegedly administering a program that segregates students on the basis of race.”1
Another seven schools are being investigated for “alleged impermissible race-based scholarships and race-based segregation.”2 I will list out the schools under investigation at the end of this blog. We need to understand why this is happening.
Ultimately, it has to do with this regime’s hatred of anything that smacks of advancing women, people of color, people with disabilities, and different views and values than this administration considers appropriate. In the press release cited earlier, they state that these investigations are being brought about “amid allegations that these institutions have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act (1964) by partnering with “The Ph.D. Project,” an organization that purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and networking opportunities, but limits eligibility based on the race of participants.”3
The Ph.D. Project states on their website that they began in 1994 with the goal of “creating more role models in the front of business classrooms.”4 That doesn’t strike me as a subversive goal. It offers support in scholarships to a wide range of individuals who otherwise may not be able to advance their education to the PhD level. And yes, that most likely means that a lot of the scholarships are going to women and people of color. As they should. Here is why.
Historically, women and people of color have been discriminated against in numerous ways. The reason we have diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs is not to advantage women and people of color over Whites. Those programs exist in order that women and people of color are given a fair playing field alongside White males. Imagine you have a room of 10 candidates for one position. Five of those candidates are White men, three are women (two White, one Latina), and two black men. They all have the same qualifications, same degrees, same ability to do the job. Who do you think will get the nod? Unfortunately, time has shown over and over again, that the White men in the room will have the advantage and one of them will likely will get the job.5
This is what this regime’s and MAGAs view of diversity, equity, inclusiveness, and accessibility gets so wrong. Diversity, equity, inclusiveness, and accessibility was never about giving advantages to people of color or women. It is a recognition that White men (and to a lesser extent White women) have a clear advantage over people of color and women. These diversity, equity, inclusivity, and accessibility programs aim to simply level the playing field. But this regime paints these programs with a lie (who’s surprised?) that they actually are targetting White men and discriminating against them.
I am a White man. I received my Ph.D. at the ripe old age of 59. Did I face discrimination in getting into my program? Not even a little. I’m White and I went to the University of Wyoming. I felt very privileged because I was. And UW was a great experience.
I am glad to hear that this Ph.D. Project exists for people who may not have had the same opportunities that I had. We need these types of programs so that people of color, women, people with disabilities, and others are given a level playing field so they can bring their insights and knowledge and experience into the teaching profession. These program should be celebrated, not investigated!
Maybe it should come as no surprise that our current occupant of the White House seeks to demolish the Department of Education (DOE). After all one of his professors said of him, “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had!”6 And when the regime’s dear leader was asked to release his transcripts, his lawyers said, “Do that and we’ll sue you!”7 Of course they would!
While we can chuckle at the orange buffoon, there are serious consequences to dismantling the DOE. Among them are resources stolen from the most vulnerable children, job training programs will be cut, higher education will become more expensive and out of reach of middle class families, and of course civil rights will be trampled.8
This regime has taken upon itself to attack the most vulnerable poeple in our country. I like to refer to them as “the least of these” as Jesus called them. I do this to point out the log in the eyes of people like Mike Johnson who hypocritically call themselves Christian while following the dictates of an antichrist. The least of these are students who come from broken families, impoverished families, families of color, families who have made the perilous journey to reach America to offer their children a better life (raise your hand if your ancestors did this). The least of these are women who face a barrier of sex discrimination that includes sexual harrassment, sexual predators, and misogynists who believe women are only here to serve one purpose. We would be so much better off with a woman at the helm of our country right now.
This regime is a stain on the United States, the world, and is best understood as a criminal enterprise that has taken over our government.
We need to call our representatives and tell them to stop this assault on education. It leads nowhere good. The U.S. House of Representatives Switchboard is (202) 225-3121; the Senate is (202) 224-3121. Tell them the name of your representative and they will connect you.
Let me close with this. Why do you think this regime is so avidly seeking to destroy diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs? Yes, it includes an attack on those who are the least among us. But I think there is another deeper and darker reason.
Victors write the history of their time. It is no accident that the current occupant of the White House has managed to create an alternative narrative in the minds of his cult-followers. He is aggrieved, a victim, everyone picks on him. That is utter bullshit. However, if this regime is successful in removing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility language from our schools, colleges, universities, businesses, and government departments…the history they will write will be about White men (primarily) who “made America great again.”
That is not a history worth reading. 9
Those 45 universities under investigaion for “allegedly awarding impermissible race-based scholarships and one university for allegedly administering a program that segregates students on the basis of race” (see footnote 1) include the following:
Arizona State University – Main Campus; Boise State University; Cal Poly Humboldt; California State University – San Bernadino; Carnegie Mellon University; Clemson University; Cornell University; Duke University; Emory University; George Mason University; Georgetown University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Montana State University-Bozeman; New York University (NYU); Rice University; Rutgers University; The Ohio State University – Main Campus; Towson University; Tulane University; University of Arkansas – Fayetteville; University of California-Berkeley; University of Chicago; University of Cincinnati – Main Campus; University of Colorado – Colorado Springs; University of Delaware; University of Kansas; University of Kentucky;
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; University of Minnesota-Twin Cities; University of Nebraska at Omaha; University of New Mexico – Main Campus; University of North Dakota – Main Campus; University of North Texas – Denton; University of Notre Dame; University of NV – Las Vegas; University of Oregon; University of Rhode Island; University of Utah; University of Washington-Seattle; University of Wisconsin-Madison; University of Wyoming; Vanderbilt University; Washington State University; Washington University in St. Louis; Yale University.
Seven additional universities are being investigated for “alleged impermissible race-based scholarships and race-based segregation.”10
Those schools are:
Grand Valley State University; Ithaca College; New England College of Optometry; University of Alabama; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities; University of South Florida; University of Oklahoma, Tulsa School of Community Medicine.
Office for Civil Rights Initiates Title VI investigations into institutions of Higher Education. U.S. Department of Education. (2025, March 14). https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/office-civil-rights-initiates-title-vi-investigations-institutions-of-higher-education-0
ibid
ibid
About Us. The PhD Project. (2025, January 23). https://phdproject.org/about-us/
Austin, A., Brown, H., & Allegretto, S. (2025, January 24). The continuing power of white preferences in employment. The Continuing Power of White Preferences in Employment. https://cepr.net/publications/the-continuing-power-of-white-preferences-in-employment/
Conrad, K. (2024, May 27). The Scathing Claim One Of Donald Trump’s College Professors Reportedly Made About Him. MSN.com. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/the-scathing-claim-one-of-donald-trump-s-college-professors-reportedly-made-about-him/ar-BB1n8qeG?ocid=iehpLMEMh8
ibid
Walker, T. (2025, February 4). How dismantling the Department of Education Would Harm Students. NEA today. https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/how-dismantling-department-education-would-harm-students
If you are interested in reading history that includes more than just White history in America, you might consider the following. Ronald Takaki, A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America; James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong; Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. and the following websites will help as well:
https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/slideshow/8095/history-books-diversity/3/
https://www.aaihs.org/the-best-black-history-books-of-2024/
Office for Civil Rights Initiates Title VI investigations into institutions of Higher Education. U.S. Department of Education. (2025, March 14). https://www.ed.gov/about/news/press-release/office-civil-rights-initiates-title-vi-investigations-institutions-of-higher-education-0
I think another lens that explains the motivation for what has been happening is that SHAME is so very powerful. Many people would rather die than feel deep shame. So when other people have higher education and are explaining what the more populated portion of country really needs, many of them feel stupid, ignorant, and second class. Instead they want a simpler life where people talk on their level and don’t have verbal power over them. They reject the greater good and prefer a localized bartering arrangement. They reject the work that it takes to understand people who are different than you are. They devalue education and rely on instinct and Street Smarts. Our felon-in-chief was somehow able to tap into that.