In a rare sign of acknowledgement from Northwestern, The Graduate School announced Thursday it is replacing its Office of Diversity and Inclusion with the new Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Success in an email to the TGS community.
This restructuring represents the latest episode in the erasure of diversity, equity and inclusion practices at NU, following the federal crackdown led by President Donald Trump. Since February, the University has purged mentions of DEI and adjacent terms in nearly all of its schools and colleges, as well as other support sites.
The letter from TGS Dean Kelly Mayo and Associate Dean of GPS Sheehan Fisher read that the new development comes as the school is “working to ensure we remain true to our values while meeting applicable regulatory requirements.”
The officials added in the email that “much is changing in our internal and external environments, requiring us to be nimble in our planning, programming and resource applications.”
Established in 2014, the ODI’s work focused on diversifying the school’s population and providing a community for underrepresented graduate students and postdoctoral trainees at NU.
It soon also evolved into an epicenter for University funding. In 2021, the office helped court about $8 million in investments for diversity recruitment and student funding initiatives at the University.
In past years, the ODI partnered with the TGS’s Academic Affairs unit to meet with different graduate programs to discuss incorporating DEI practices. Office members then consulted with TGS’s Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council, whose website seems to have been removed recently.
A University spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
In what mainly appeared to be a renaming of the office, the letter mentioned that the GPS will continue to intersect with many TGS units, including Career and Professional Development, the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, the Training Grant Support Office and the Office of Student Life.
Email: jerrywu2027@u.northwestern.edu
Twitter: @Jerrwu
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