Case Western Reserve University shuttered its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) office Wednesday, citing pressure from President Donald Trump’s administration.
University president Eric Kaler delivered the news to faculty, staff and students in an email Wednesday afternoon. He said the decision was effective immediately.
Kaler, who leads the largest private university in Ohio, specifically called out two federal executive orders calling to end all DEI work as motivation for the decision.
“We have watched the evolution of the legal challenges to these executive orders, and, as we have seen among some of our peers already, it is clear we must be in compliance with them to receive the federal funding that is critical to our present and future,” Kaler wrote.
University officials declined to say if any current employees would lose their jobs due to the office’s closure.
Case Western Reserve’s move comes as the Trump administration has withheld federal funding to some universities nationwide over issues such as transgender students participating in sports and universities’ responses to campus protests.
Case Western Reserve launches Office for Campus Enrichment and Engagement
Kaler’s Wednesday email also said Case Western Reserve would launch a new Office for Campus Enrichment and Engagement.
A related website is already up online. It highlights a variety of programs ranging from hosting small-business community events to programs aiming to “educate the campus community on topics such as antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Christianity.”
“This office will work to connect our community and offer programming that aligns with its new mission: Enriching our campus life through building community, active engagement, mindful learning and transformative civil dialogue,” Kaler wrote in Wednesday’s email.
As Signal Ohio reported last month, many colleges and universities across the state already began scaling back DEI programs even before Ohio lawmakers pushed to ban them in a sweeping higher education overhaul bill known as Senate Bill 1. That bill is headed to Gov. Mike DeWine, who indicated he plans to sign it.
Case Western Reserve is a private university, though, and wouldn’t be impacted by that legislation if it becomes law. The campus is impacted by some other state-level decisions, including a law requiring people to use bathrooms that match the gender they were assigned at birth.
President Kaler continues to debrief university about federal decisions
Wednesday’s email is not the first time this semester that Kaler’s written about the impact of federal decisions on the University Circle campus. He’s sent at least six other messages since Trump took office, including about the impact of proposed federal cuts to research funding.
In a Feb. 18 email, he discussed a “Dear Colleague” letter it received from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. That letter called on universities to end DEI work or risk losing federal funding. Federal agencies use these to explain their interpretation of existing regulations, but the letters don’t dictate the law.
Kaler described that Trump administration letter in blunt terms, calling it an apparent “gross overreach” of a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled it’s unconstitutional for schools to consider race in the admissions process.
