Copyright Chicago Sun-Times
The University of Illinois Chicago is eliminating the consideration of race, color, national origin, sex and gender from financial aid and hiring, promotion and tenure decisions to align with a new University of Illinois System policy and “current legal standards,” according to a message posted by university officials. That’s despite an August court decision ordering the Trump administration scrap guidance instructing schools to end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives or risk losing federal funding. The White House tried another tact this month and offered universities expanded access to funding if they signed a compact outlining many of Trump’s political priorities, including banning the consideration of race and gender in admissions and hiring. So far six colleges have rejected the agreement and none have accepted it. “There’s no new law or new executive order constricting what the university system is allowed to do, so it does feel like a voluntary capitulation,” said Nicole Nguyen, a UIC faculty member and union leader. “We’ve understood that the world is not a level playing field, and that some people, by virtue of the communities, the neighborhoods, the families that they’re born into, have disadvantage or privilege. Scholarships that attend to racial inequity, gender inequity are about trying to level those scales.” UIC and University of Illinois System officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. UIC, which has been federally designated as a minority-serving institution, serves more than 35,000 students, more than a third of whom identify as Hispanic or Latino and a fifth as Asian. Leaders did not immediately respond when asked if policy changes were made at the University of Illinois campuses in Urbana-Champaign and Springfield. Going forward, any donor- and institutionally-funded scholarships UIC offers must be reviewed and revised to ensure they do not consider an applicants’ “race, color, national origin, and sex/gender,” according to a recent communication sent by UIC leadership. Leaders said any scholarships already awarded or approved before Oct. 14 will not be impacted. In addition, faculty will no longer be allowed to submit a statement on their efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion as part of their tenure process, according to a message sent by UIC’s vice provost for faculty affairs and reviewed by WBEZ. “The UIC administration on the one hand wants to sell UIC as this diverse, inclusive, racial justice kind of campus,” said Nguyen, a professor of law, criminology and justice. “On the other hand it’s saying, ‘We don’t want to acknowledge and reward [the] hard work [it takes] to [support] diversity, to do social justice work because we’re afraid of the repercussions at the federal level or at the legal level.’” Since the start of his second term, President Donald Trump has launched a broad campaign against initiatives benefitting students who have been underrepresented and marginalized in higher education, alleging that programs like scholarships reserved for students of color discriminate against white students. In executive orders and a February memo issued by the U.S. Department of Education, the president and his administration cited the 2023 Supreme Court case outlawing the consideration of race in college admissions. However, legal scholars say that decision does not extend to financial aid. “UIC’s mission is to increase access at the highest levels of excellence and this, to me, sends a message that essentially says we don’t actually care about access,” Nguyen said of UIC’s decision to end the consideration of race and other factors in financial aid and hiring. “We only care about providing higher education to those who can afford it, those who have had the privileges of going to the best schools in the best neighborhoods in the country, and we’ve given up our mission and commitments to the city and to its diverse population.”
