MIT Becomes Latest University To Back Away From DEI Initiatives
Another day, another college announcing it’s withdrawing from its commitments to DEI initiatives. The latest victim of the Trump administration’s ongoing assault on DEI is none other than the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
According to CNN, MIT President Sally Kornbluth announced last Thursday that it would be sunsetting its Institute Community and Equity Office (ICEO) in an effort to comply with the Trump administration’s crackdown on DEI initiatives. In February, the Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague,” letter to several universities, informing them that their federal funding would be pulled if they didn’t take steps to close their DEI departments and end initiatives designed to foster inclusivity.
Kornbluth’s letter stated that the school wouldn’t be abandoning its commitments to DEI initiatives entirely, and that many of the programs would be taken over by various other departments. Quite honestly, the writing for the school’s ICEO was on the wall in February when then-Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Karl Reid resigned from the role despite only being in it for just over a year. In her end-of-semester update for students, Kornbluth was candid about how the cuts in federal funding have resulted in the school laying off staff and reducing the number of graduate students it could admit for the upcoming school year.
MIT’s neighboring school, Harvard University, has been one of the primary targets in the Trump Administration’s ongoing crusade to prevent Black, brown, and queer students being given the same opportunities as their white peers. The DOE launched a “Civil Rights Fraud Initiative” last week, with Harvard currently facing a False Claims investigation to ensure their DEI initiatives complied with the Supreme Court ruling ending affirmative action in university admissions.
The Trump administration has already withheld research funding from Harvard, MIT, and several other universities, including ones that immediately sunset their DEI initiatives in response to the letter. While lawsuits filed by Harvard and MIT have halted some of those cuts, the moves have cast a cloud of uncertainty on their ability to continue doing valuable research in the foreseeable future.
This crackdown isn’t only targeted at domestic DEI initiatives, as the Trump administration has also taken aim at international students. Last month, MIT stated that nine of its international students had their visas revoked without any reason given. The administration also filed a directive to prevent Harvard from being able to admit international students at all, though a federal judge temporarily blocked the directive as a result of a lawsuit filed by the university.
Y’all, it’s incredibly clear that Trump and those who support him have a very limited understanding of how power is obtained and maintained on a global scale. The Trump administration made the exact same mistake in defunding the USAID program, seemingly not realizing that the money being spent was a textbook example of soft power. Allowing international students in our schools, making our universities hospitable for all walks of life, and creating programs that provide pathways to employment for underrepresented communities is another way of maintaining soft power in the global order.
I don’t even get down with American Imperialism like that, but I’m entirely cognizant of how much of it depends on more than military might. I can’t, for the life of me, understand how undercutting our ability to attract and keep the best and brightest minds and weakening our universities’ ability to do important research is going to “Make America Great Again.”
For a dude who loves to brag about winning, he only seems capable of playing losing hands (which honestly explains how he bankrupted a casino).
There’s this pervasive idea that ending DEI initiatives is only going to hurt Black and brown people, but all Americans are going to suffer the unintended consequences of these moves to make anti-intellectualism the standard in America.
If America is seen as actively hostile to the idea of multiculturalism in both education and our society at large, it creates a window for other countries to swoop in and put the world’s brightest minds to work for their interests.
But hey, maybe I’m just being crazy. It’s not like there’s a historical precedent of scholars, scientists, and intellectuals fleeing oppressive regimes and using their skills to craft breakthroughs in medical, engineering, and weapons technology for opposing countries.
There’s no way that could ever happen to us, right?
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