By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s administration has warned of cuts in federal funding for academic institutions and universities if they continue with diversity, equity and inclusion programs that the new U.S. president has attempted to dismantle in his early days in office.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Trump has issued executive orders since taking office on January 20 to target DEI in the federal government and private sector.

Rights advocates say DEI programs help uplift marginalized communities by addressing historic inequities. Trump and his allies call the programs anti-merit and discriminatory against white people and men.

KEY QUOTES

“The Department (of Education) intends to take appropriate measures to assess compliance with the applicable statutes and regulations based on the understanding embodied in this letter beginning no later than 14 days from today’s date, including antidiscrimination requirements that are a condition of receiving federal funding,” the Education Department said in a letter.

The letter was reported earlier by Axios on Monday. It was dated Friday. It advised education institutions to comply with civil rights laws and cease efforts to circumvent restrictions, including by ending reliance on third-party contractors for such prohibitions.

“Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding,” the letter said.

CONTEXT

DEI programs have been part of workplace diversity efforts to ensure fairer representation for groups seen as historically marginalized, such as African Americans, LGBTQ+ community members, women, disabled people and other ethnic minorities in the United States.

DEI efforts picked up pace, including in the private sector, in 2020 after the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Chris Sanders and Lisa Shumaker)