Since last summer, incoming student Amaad Garrett has been an intern with Texas State Sen. Royce West. For the past year, West’s office has fought anti-diversity, equity and inclusion legislation.
Garrett was admitted to Northwestern in the early round of QuestBridge, a program that partners with universities to recruit academically exceptional students from low-income backgrounds. Coming from a state where DEI is under threat, Garrett said his racial identity and background as a civically engaged young person played a critical role in his college admissions process.
“(Diversity) was the number one thing that contributed to my application process — being able to find the people where I felt comfortable, where I could fit in and continue to further find and curate my identity as a Black male,” he said.
That was before President Donald Trump won a second term in November and jump started a calculated course of policy actions to eliminate DEI from universities nationwide. As someone who studies policy, Garrett believes Trump’s attacks on DEI stem from Republican-led pressure.
“I feel like Republicans tried to antagonize (Trump) in putting DEI on his list of priorities,” he said.
With a rising tide of anti-DEI legislation, the future of programs like QuestBridge, Student Enrichment Services and the Knight Community Scholars is uncertain. These programs have historically been avenues for low-income students to gain entry into and thrive at elite universities, but DEI shutdowns may impact these groups.
Garrett plans to study social policy. He said the School of Education and Social Policy presented a strong avenue to dismantle injustices in access to education.
“We’re able to explore all of the variables that contribute to social and economic disparities prevalent in marginalized communities,” he said.
For Garrett and several other QuestBridge scholars accepted to NU, attending racially diverse colleges was essential. While 43% of students in NU’s class of 2028 are white, NU’s percentage of Black, Indigenous and international students has seen an increase in the last two admissions cycles.
Nanees Abakar is an admitted QuestBridge student from Iowa. She said that as a Black Muslim, finding community in college is essential, but Abakar was confident she would be able to find Muslim friends at whichever school she ended up attending.
In learning about some of the student groups for Muslim students, Abakar felt hopeful about building community at NU.
“It makes me feel great. I’m happy to see more people who look like me,” she said.
NU has various student organizations aimed at supporting Black and Muslim students, many of which Abakar previously researched. Weinberg freshman and QuestBridge scholar Jude Brenya approached the college process knowing economic diversity would be a priority for him. As a low-income student, Brenya sought out schools with strong representation of low-income students.
Brenya also researched the number of QuestBridge scholars at a given university.
Once she arrived on campus, Communication and Bienen freshman Gina Alba Cervantes found comfort in the support systems in place for students from underrepresented backgrounds. She sought guidance from Student Enrichment Services, an organization that supports students who are first-generation, lower-income and/or DACA/Undocumented.
She also joined the Knight Community Scholars program, which selects a group of first-generation, low-income students and offers advising throughout all four years of college, which includes one-on-one sessions, group advising, workshops and “community-building opportunities,” according to its recently removed website.
NU responds to the Supreme Court
In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action in college admissions.
Thus far, colleges have navigated uncharted waters when it comes to recruiting a diverse student body.
After the ruling, University President Michael Schill released a statement in June 2023 doubling down on NU’s commitment to diversity. The statement has since been taken down along with other DEI websites.
In the statement, he expressed disappointment in the court’s decision: “I strongly disagree with the interpretation of the Constitution reflected in the majority opinion, a decision that will make it more difficult for Northwestern to achieve one of our imperatives — the promotion of diversity, inclusion and belonging on our campuses.”
Since the decision, many selective universities have seen drops in their enrollment sizes of underrepresented racial groups. According to The Harvard Crimson, the enrollment of Black students at Harvard University was reduced from 18% for the class of 2027 to 14% in the class of 2028.
According to The Philanthropy Roundtable, the percentage of non-Asian racial minorities in the class of 2028 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology plummeted from 31% in previous years to 16%. At Amherst College, the enrollment of Black students dropped from 11% for the class of 2027 to 3% in the class of 2028, according to the same article.
Contrary to these national trends, NU has seen an increase in its enrollment of Black, Hispanic, international and Native or Indigenous students.
For the class of 2027, the final class to benefit from race-conscious admissions, the enrollment of these groups was 14.2% Black, 17.2% Hispanic or Latinx, 10.5% international and 2% Native or Indigenous.
For the class of 2028, the groups’ enrollment saw an uptick. The incoming class was 15% Black or African American, 18% Hispanic or Latinx, 13% international and 3% Native or Indigenous.
Incoming student and QuestBridge scholar Rolando Vela said these metrics were promising. Hailing from Laredo, Texas — an area that is 95% Hispanic — Vela said he is eager to be surrounded by a diverse student body.
“I’ve been lucky to be surrounded by people who are like me, but I’m also very excited to meet people from other races and backgrounds,” he said.
Although data for the class of 2029 is still pending with the release of regular application decisions, the early decision and QuestBridge rounds saw more first-generation applicants, along with “increased geographic diversity,” according to a letter to college counselors from Dean of Undergraduate Admission Liz Kinsley.
The letter also indicated that the incoming class had more international students, students from rural locations and from American neighborhoods with “statistically higher college-going barriers.”
Beyond the admissions process, NU has historically placed an emphasis on diversity. However, with the recent removal of DEI websites — including through the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion and diversity offices at schools like the Medill School of Journalism, Feinberg School of Medicine, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences — the extent to which NU prioritizes diversity is unknown.
Before the administration’s executive orders, NU invested in equity and inclusion through student initiatives and affinity-based organizations.
The Associated Student Government (ASG) still holds cabinet seats for executive officers of justice and inclusion. It also offers representation to affinity-based organizations through senate seats.
Weinberg junior and former ASG President and co-Executive Officer of Justice & Inclusion Ty’Shea Woods joined student government to promote equity.
“As a Black woman, (social justice) is pretty innate to who I am and who I seek to be in the world,” Woods said. “My whole life philosophy is about serving others and making the world a better and more equitable place.”
Trump administration doubles down on anti-DEI legislation
Rolling back DEI was among the first policy items Trump pursued upon taking office in a targeted war on diversity-oriented initiatives.
On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order banning DEI at the federal level. The title of its White House web entry read “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.”
Less than a month later, the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights sent a letter to universities nationwide calling for them to halt considering race in hiring, scholarships or among “all other aspects of student, academic and campus life,” threatening to pull federal funding.
Recognizing “uncertainty” this letter may cause, Schill sent a schoolwide email on Feb. 19, acknowledging the toll that this legislation may have on NU.
“We currently are analyzing the Executive Order and OCR letter and their potential impacts on the University. As we do that review, we bear in mind that our choices could have major impacts on the University community,” the letter read.
Schill’s letter also emphasized the need for “adopt(ing) programs that work to expose people to views that are different from their own.”
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.
NU student groups respond to anti-DEI policies
Activism has long been central to some NU students’ lives.
SESP senior and former FMO Vice President Michaiah Ligon helped organize a protest in 2023 regarding the University’s policing of Black community members.
The demonstration aimed to renew attention to the 1968 Bursar’s Office Takeover, when over 100 students occupied the Bursar’s Office for 38 hours to demand an increase in Black student admissions, an acknowledgment of the existence of institutional racism at the University and the establishment of a Black student union.
Following the 2023 protest, Ligon became Vice Coordinator of Programming of FMO. Ligon said she sought to “leverage what (she) learned from that experience to encourage more activism within the FMO space.”
In responding to anti-DEI legislation, Ligon hopes to harness the power of “collective resistance.”
“When people are on the same page, collective resistance is a very powerful tool,” she said.
In the Department of Education’s Feb. 14 letter, the Trump Administration gave schools nationwide an ultimatum: end diversity programming or risk losing federal funding.
The guideline applied not only to colleges and universities, but all levels of education. Despite presenting a sweeping motion, the letter’s nebulous language has sparked panic among educational institutions throughout the country.
Trump’s anti-DEI rhetoric enraged Ligon.
“(It’s) an attack on all the work that has been done since my parents were born and since my grandparents were born,” Ligon said. “It’s very dystopian.”
ASG co-presidents, co-presidents-elect and members of the ASG cabinet met to discuss ways to troubleshoot a response to this ultimatum.
McCormick and Bienen junior and ASG co-President-elect James La Fayette Jr. said the meeting tackled how the federal government may penalize NU in particular.
According to La Fayette, the threat of the federal government imposing stark financial burdens on the University is possible. He cited the school’s hefty endowment.
NU is among select universities that possess an endowment of over $1 billion, along with schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford. Universities with comparable endowments are required to pay an endowment tax of 1.4% of their net investment income.
As of August 2024, NU’s endowment sits at roughly $14.3 billion and is among the largest endowments of any schools in the U.S., according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Schill outlined the potential impact of raising endowment taxes in a letter released on Feb. 12 in the university websites’ “Leadership Notes” page.
According to the letter, proposed federal increases on NU’s endowment tax from 1.4% to 14% could have damaging repercussions.
Among those consequences may be “constraints on tuition and endowment payout revenues, increased expenses related to labor contracts and employee benefits” and “potential changes in federal policy, compliance, research administration, security and litigation,” the letter read.
La Fayette said this tax increase may force the University to reallocate spending away from diversity initiatives. He said ASG currently prioritizes budget funding for student organizations run by historically underrepresented groups.
“If we come under an investigation and they consider that illegal DEI, then we’re worried about what to do,” he said.
Still, La Fayette said he’s steadfast in his mission to protect students from this legislation.
“I think that ASG should do everything that we can — short of breaking the law — to protect its students,” La Fayette said.
According to Weinberg sophomore and African Student Association Events Coordinator Imani Munene, cutbacks on funding for diversity initiatives like affinity groups are troublesome. Since Schill’s letter was released, Munene has consistently monitored the status of her affinity groups’ funding.
In particular, she’s worried about ASA’s existing lack of funding. She believes the organization is particularly vulnerable because they do not have an ASG Senate seat.
Munene added that the goal of affinity groups is to allow marginalized students at NU to come together and build community at an institution where they are in the minority.
She expressed frustration that these policies could undermine those goals.
“It’s so saddening and sickening that we have to see these cultural spaces that promote diversity and allow people with difficult (experiences) to get together … be taken away,” she said.
NU grapples with federal government pressure
As government pressure against DEI continues to mount, University webpages spotlighting diversity initiatives have been taken down.
Weinberg, School of Communication, Feinberg, Bienen School of Music and Medill scrubbed their DEI web pages. Last week, the University removed its webpage for the Women’s Center.
Now, the Student Enrichment Services, the Women’s Center and Knight Community Scholars web pages redirect to a window called Community & Belonging. Woods said that these closures undermine the University’s commitment to diversity and inclusion.
“It’s really crazy to see all these initiatives and commitments to diversity, and then just like that, the web pages are gone,” she said.
Alba Cervantes is deeply concerned about the closure of these websites.
She added that the situation leaves students with far fewer resources to lean on.
“When a student needs help, their first instinct is to look up Northwestern (webpages) for whatever they need help with,” Alba Cervantes said. “And when those websites aren’t available to them, then where are these students going to go?”
Woods said that her service to NU, demonstrated by multiple consecutive terms in ASG, is being unreturned.
For Medill junior Jessica Watts, the Vice President of Career Development at NU’s National Association of Black Journalists chapter, the administration’s shutdown of DEI websites sells students short.
Watts said the University’s response represents a surrender.
“NU has this expectation that we as students should have so much pride in our institution and carry the NU name,” Watts said. “It’s sad to see now that the university isn’t doing the same for us.”
At NU, the Quest Scholars Network (colloquially referred to as Quest+) is an advocacy group for low-income and first-generation students servicing over 20% of the student body. It also operates as a mentorship and educational program for low-income students at schools throughout the Chicago area.
Since the future of DEI is uncertain, Communication senior and Quest+ co-President Victor Criollo said the emphasis lies in building community in the present moment.
“We can only do so much,” Criollo said. “For us, we’re really trying to build community and make sure (students) currently feel like they have a place. That’s ultimately the best we can do.”
Watts has a similar stance.
She said spaces like NABJ will continue to exist regardless of any political regime.
“We’re here. We’re not going anywhere,” Watts said. “We exist and we’re going to be a resource for anyone and everyone.”
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Related Stories:
— The Daily Explains: How Northwestern has responded to Trump’s anti-DEI orders
— Three Northwestern schools take down DEI sections on their web pages— Northwestern Libraries’ website removes DEI mention as University responds to executive orders
