BLOOMINGTON, IN--Colleges around the country have been cutting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion funding, leaving many Indiana University students wondering if their school could be next. With the recent dismissal of Ivy Tech Community College's DEI program and the closing of IU Indianapolis's equity center, the pressure has been put on IU Bloomington to make decisions about their DEI programs, or risk losing funding.
Indiana University offers free mental health services to students, as well as specific minority counselors and group sessions. Many minority students rely on these programs as an outlet to voice their thoughts and feelings, and to connect with other minority students. These students are now wondering whether or not these programs will continue to be offered due to the DEI firings happening around the country.
IU telecommunications professor Matt Pierce shared his thoughts about whether or not he thinks minority counseling services at IU will continue to be offered,
“I think that they will, I believe what’s happening now is that a lot of universities are just going to change the terminology and move around the employees so that they can tell the government that they’re no longer doing DEI, but I think a lot of what they have been doing will be changing.”
Many of the services currently offered could possibly be changed if IU wants to continue to keep their funding.
IU has been quiet about the possibilities of DEI programs going away, however at the Feb. 18 University Faculty Council Meeting, vice president of university relations Michael Huber spoke up.
“The problem is, with a few of these communications and executive orders, we can't point to the exact result or effect on IU yet, because the federal agencies now are tasked with implementing the executive orders,” said Huber.
Alliana Elasigue, senior biology and minority student, says she is concerned about the possibility of losing DEI programs.
“I think it’s a slippery slope because if they’re going to start getting rid of some DEI programs, they could end up getting rid of all of them. I think the CAPs programs are very helpful for some students and getting rid of them could be really bad for students who need them.” Elasigue said. CAPS is the Counseling and Psychological Services center at IU.
“I think that Indiana University could lose funding if they do not get rid of it, but the program is really important to a lot of students.” Elasigue said.
When Pierce was asked if he had any advice for students who are concerned about losing DEI resources, he had this to say.
“Well, I think that they should be getting politically involved and be speaking to their representatives, whether they be state legislators or members of congress in the US senate, people have to get involved in the democratic process. So right now that means letting their members of congress know what they think about these proposals or state legislators, and then also they need to be involved in voting in upcoming elections so they can make sure that they’re voting for people who actually support their interests.” Pierce said.
Many IU students have been raising their voices and concerns about the possible DEI programs being cut by organizing protests and sharing information with friends. The future of IU’s minority CAPs program is in the air but is still being offered at the time of writing.