Over the past few weeks, Northwestern, like other universities nationwide, has been complying with the new Trump administration’s hefty diversity, equity and inclusion initiative crackdowns.

In President Donald Trump’s first week in office, he issued an executive order to eliminate DEI policies in federally funded programs.

At the start of February, only a few NU schools took any initiative to obey the order, scrubbing references to DEI efforts here and there on their websites. 

But the stakes soon rose again. In a Feb. 14 letter to universities, the Education Department presented colleges nationwide with an ultimatum: eliminate all diversity initiatives in the next two weeks or risk losing federal funding.

Though a federal judge blocked most of Trump’s initial anti-DEI order on Feb. 21, meaning the federal government cannot revoke any of NU’s funding due to noncompliance, the effects at NU have been tangible. The University has erased mentions of DEI in nearly all of its schools and colleges, as well as other support sites.

In a statement to The Daily, a University spokesperson said that “Northwestern is currently reviewing its policies and programs to ensure we meet all federal and state laws and requirements.”

The spokesperson added that “equal opportunity for every member of the Northwestern community remains central to our core values and we are committed to ensuring that students, faculty and staff enjoy a community that is welcoming to all.” 

Here’s what remains on NU’s websites.

Feinberg School of Medicine

NU’s school of medicine was the first to show signs of falling in line with Trump’s executive orders.

A little more than three weeks after Trump first issued his DEI-related executive order, Feinberg quietly went to work.

On Feb. 13, its original web page for its Office of Diversity & Inclusion appeared to have been largely scrubbed of the words “diversity” and “inclusion.”

The office was also renamed the Office of Health Equity, driven by the goal “to advance healthcare and improve health for all people.”

At the time, a University spokesperson said updates on the website were “a long-planned evolution” added to better align with NU’s “shared efforts with clinical partners at the Chicago academic medical center regarding community and community engagement.”

Mentions of various, long-standing Black Feinberg affinity groups, including the Daniel Hale Williams Society and Emma Reynolds Circle, were also taken down.

Kellogg School of Management

Almost a week after The Daily reported the change, Kellogg removed its DEI Pathway from its list of course offerings on its website.

The DEI Pathway first debuted in 2021, joining other options, such as entrepreneurship, sustainability and technology management. Each pathway is meant to be a designed sequence of courses geared toward a specific industry or skillset.

The webpage detailing the specifics of the DEI pathway has now been completely erased.

Other diversity-related content, including a press release on a staff member who won a DEI-related award, has also been taken down.

Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Weinberg’s website on its commitment to DEI was soon to follow, as The Daily reported on Wednesday. 

The website included information on diversity components in the college’s curriculum and existing research findings related to DEI.

McCormick School of Engineering

In similar fashion, McCormick’s DEI website was also removed entirely. 

Its old website, boasting that diversity was essential to the school, has seemingly been replaced by a webpage about the school’s “commitment to community and belonging.” 

There are no mentions of the words “diversity” or any adjacent terms.

School of Communication

The School of Communication scrubbed its DEI webpage, as reported Wednesday.

The old webpage highlighted initiatives like NU’s DEI Task Force and the Black Arts Consortium.

Medill School of Journalism

A day later, Medill took down its web pages centering on its mission statements to DEI.

An article about the hiring of Robert Brown as Medill’s Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Outreach seemed no longer accessible.

In an email to The Daily, however, Brown confirmed that he is still employed at NU.

Bienen School of Music

On the same day, Bienen’s webpage for DEI went down. Its mission statement went missing on its homepage, too.

School of Education and Social Policy

SESP appeared on Friday to have deleted its “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice” page, which previously contained some links to the school’s DEI-related research and civic engagement programs.

The webpage has since been replaced with one entitled “Our Commitments” and elucidates its intellectual mission without any of the former mentions of diversity.

Former links to DEI programs have now been substituted by SESP’s general research and community engagement initiatives.

Pritzker Law School

Pritzker appeared to have erased its DEI website, as reported Sunday. It’s now been replaced with a web page that explains that NU is now reviewing “policies and programs to ensure we meet all federal and state laws and requirements.”

The old webpage contained a list of DEI resources, initiatives and scholarships — now, all gone.

The Graduate School

TGS also removed its web page, as reported Sunday. The old website, containing an extensive diversity statement and initiatives supporting underrepresented students in doctoral programs, has now been replaced with the same pending review webpage.

Other support sites

Support sites for the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center, Multicultural Student Affairs and Student Enrichment Services and the Women’s Center have been taken down. Site visitors are similarly left with the pending review screen.

Northwestern Career Advancement, NU’s Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Compliance, NU Libraries and the Office for Research have all struck out their respective DEI web pages, too.

Clarification: This story has been updated to include that a federal judge largely blocked Trump’s executive orders relating to DEI Feb. 21.

This is a developing story.

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Related Stories:

— Three Northwestern schools take down DEI sections on their web pages

— NU Kellogg removes DEI Pathway amid Trump executive orders

— NU Feinberg scrubs DEI web page amid Trump’s executive orders