FILE - The sign above the door to the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging inside the main administration building on the main University of Kansas campus is seen on April 12, 2024, in Lawrence, Kan. While some universities in the United States are shutting down diversity offices and eliminating equity-related groups after the second Trump administration began in January 2025, Oregon’s institutions are largely standing their ground.
John Hanna / AP
On any given day during the school year, Eastern Oregon University’s Center for Strategic Equity Initiatives could be assisting students in a variety of ways.
The center’s staff may be helping an international student maintain their visa status. They could be explaining how federal financial aid works to a young person from a low-income background. Or they could be connecting students in unstable housing situations to rental assistance resources.
“No one is excluded from any of the work that we’re doing,” Bennie Moses-Mesubed, Eastern’s associate vice president of strategic equity initiatives, said.
The department Moses-Mesubed leads is designed to make sure students attending the small and rural public university located in La Grande have the tools they need to be successful in their college career.
“We all come with unique differences, but how we’ve navigated systems and how we’ve been able to succeed in different systems has not always been equitable,” Moses-Mesubed said. “Our work is really about identifying opportunity gaps and ensuring students can be successful in their college journeys.”
But across the nation, student support initiatives that consider cultural, economic and social differences among students, like Eastern’s, are under pressure.
The Trump administration has alleged that these programs unlawfully discriminate against some students and it’s threatened to pull federal funding from schools that continue to run them. Some universities across the nation have responded to the federal pressures by shutting down their diversity offices and eliminating equity-related groups.
That’s not the case in Oregon.
Higher education institutions in the Beaver State are largely staying the course amid federal directives to quash inclusivity efforts. Administrators and faculty leading diversity, equity and inclusion programs that OPB spoke to believe they have been following the law all along.
Bennie Moses-Mesubed leads Eastern Oregon University's Center for Strategic Equity Initiatives.
Courtesy of Bennie Moses-Mesubed
“We do not use race as a criterion for determining access and support because our commitment is to every single student,” Moses-Mesubed said. “When we fail to support our students, it not only affects their success but also impacts our institutional sustainability and success.”
Federal DEI directives cause confusion among universities
An order to eliminate DEI programs within higher education was among the first executive actions signed by President Donald Trump in his first week in office.
The order states that DEI-related policies and practices put in place by institutions could violate civil rights laws and it directed the U.S. Department of Education to issue guidance on how colleges should comply.
What has materialized, first through a Feb.14 “Dear Colleague” letter from the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights and then a frequently asked questions memo sent two weeks later, has left many in higher education with whiplash.
“The Dear Colleague letter told colleges and universities to not talk about, consider, use, or collect data about race — basically operate in an entirely race-blind fashion, or else we’re coming after you,” Willamette University constitutional law professor Norman Williams said. “And then the FAQ comes out and walks back almost all of that.”
Both documents cite the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to reverse race-conscious affirmative action in admissions processes as its legal basis. The Dear Colleague letter had a much more broad interpretation of the ruling while the FAQ appears to more closely follow the historical reading of federal civil rights law.
This confusion only adds to the uncertainty for higher education leaders.
“The challenge for lawyers advising university administrators is how to deal with a document that’s not itself law, but is informing how the Department of Education may deal with universities in the upcoming weeks and months,” Williams said.
A lawsuit filed by the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education is currently challenging Trump’s executive order, which resulted in the Education Department’s guidance. Last month a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction barring some parts of the order, including any DEI-related enforcement actions against universities with endowments of $1 billion or more.
Even though most higher education diversity and equity initiatives may be lawful, Williams said the federal actions could still have a chilling effect at universities.
“— Willamette University constitutional law professor Norman Williams“Executive overreach may in fact be illegal and may be challenged in court, but that doesn’t unring the bell,” Williams said. “Universities have to be thinking about that. Do we want to be the university that loses its federal funding by ignoring it?””
Last Friday, the Education Department appeared to make its first move against institutions it believes are violating the law. The department’s civil rights office launched an investigation into 45 universities, alleging their partnership with a nonprofit that helps underrepresented students obtain doctoral degrees excluded some students based on race. The University of Oregon was named as one of the universities under investigation.
Oregon universities and colleges make little to no changes
Several colleges and universities across the nation are taking action to comply with the federal directives. Some have erased any mention of words like “diversity” and “inclusion” from university websites, taken down web pages dedicated to DEI entirely and completely shuttered equity offices.
On the other hand, higher education institutions in Oregon are largely standing by their established diversity offices and programs.
Since the Trump administration took office, all of the state’s seven public universities and a majority of community colleges and private colleges have maintained their public-facing diversity and equity websites. A notable exception is Corban University — a private, Christian university in Salem. Corban appears to have taken down a web page that included a “Theology of Multicultural Inclusion Statement,” though its web site still maintains a non-discrimination statement.
Students in Eastern Oregon University's Navigators Club visit with State Senator Bill Hansell and his wife on Nov. 30, 2023. The university's clubs and support resources are open to all students.
Courtesy of Eastern Oregon University/Michael K. Dakota
DEI currently has a strong base in Oregon. But not everyone in the state is a supporter, dating back to before the Trump administration took over in January.
State legislation that would have prohibited Oregon’s public schools, including universities and colleges, from implementing diversity and equity initiatives was introduced last year. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Boomer Wright, R-Coos Bay, failed.
At Portland State University, administrators created internal workgroups to address the many federal directives that appear aimed at hobbling higher education institutions. At a board of trustees meeting last month, Portland State President Ann Cudd said equity is the university’s North Star.
“PSU exists to close equity gaps by making the transformative power of higher education available to anyone who wants to pursue a college degree,” Cudd said at the Feb. 18 board of trustees meeting.
Oregon State University, as well as other institutions in the state, believe their programs and curriculum are already compliant with both state and federal civil rights laws and no changes are necessary. In a letter sent to the Oregon State campus community on Feb. 17, OSU Vice President of University Relations Rob Odom said OSU does not make admissions, hiring, housing or other related decisions based on race, color or national origin.
“Quite simply, all are welcome at Oregon State University,” Odom wrote in the letter. “Part of that welcome means meeting communities and students where they are, honoring their unique perspectives, their challenges and their lived experiences.”
Additional guidance on the Education Department’s Dear Colleague letter from Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield’s office and the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission share this stance. Both memos reinforce that Oregon’s higher education institutions can continue to foster diverse and inclusive campuses while still complying with state and federal laws.
Bennie Moses-Mesubed works with an Eastern Oregon University student in the Navigators Club in an undated photo.
Courtesy of Eastern Oregon University
But even with reassurance from the state, the discourse around DEI on campus is still touch and go. Universities and colleges don’t want to draw unwanted attention from the federal government.
At Clatsop Community College in Astoria, there are discussions about rebranding the college’s DEI council or getting rid of it altogether. The college already eliminated a full-time DEI director position last year due to budget constraints.
For now, Clatsop faculty member Fernando Rojas-Galvan is helping lead the college’s DEI council through the uncertainty caused by the Trump administration.
“This is causing us to refocus and to remember why we’re here,” said Rojas-Galvan, who has been involved with the college’s diversity efforts for seven years. “We’re here to serve every one of our students that shows up on our campus.”
