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Indiana University Shuts Down DEI Office Amid Political Pressure
Indiana University is shutting down its system-wide DEI office on May 22 amid political pressure from federal and state government officials. The decision was made as an effort to "further ensure compliance" with state and federal guidelines regarding diversity programs.
In April, Indiana's Republican supermajority passed a law that bans state government and public colleges and universities from taking actions based on characteristics like race or gender.
"select student programs and centers" would be reintegrated into other departments at IU, though it did not specify which were being canceled and which were being preserved.
The university's Office of Institutional Equity is being renamed to the Office of Civil Rights Compliance, which the release said "more accurately reflects" the office's mission to ensure that the university is in line with federal civil rights laws. Supporters of DEI initiatives say that such programs provide resources for students that have historically been underrepresented in higher education.
Indianapolis' DEI division included a variety of advisory councils, including groups for Black, Latino and LGBTQ faculty and staff, as well as a number of resource pages.
It's unclear how many staff worked at IU Indianapolis specifically. The university hasn't said whether DEI employees across IU will lose their jobs or be shifted to another role. When contacted with questions about the closure and how it would affect the Indy campus, IU spokesperson Mark Bode referred Mirror Indy to the university's news release.
IU Indianapolis is the second Indianapolis university to shutter its DEI program in response to federal and state laws. In February, Ivy Tech announced the closure of its statewide diversity, equity and belonging office, saying it wanted to protect its state and federal funding, especially for student scholarships.
In February, the university abruptly closed an equity research center at IU Indianapolis after the federal Department of Education revoked its funding. And, IU School of Medicine has recently removed and edited dozens of DEI-related webpages after a Trump administration order that required schools that receive funding from the National Institutes of Health to certify they don’t run programs that promote “discriminatory equity ideology.”
IU is also discontinuing its Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and renaming it Office of Civil Rights Compliance. The university will continue to support student programs and centers through other departments.
The decision comes as the Trump administration has been pressuring colleges to end DEI policies, most recently by threatening to use a civil anti-fraud law to revoke funding from colleges that promote diversity and inclusion.