The University of the South AAUP Chapter
The U.S. Department of Education warned American colleges and universities in a Feb. 14 Dear Colleague letter that all race-conscious initiatives must be eliminated within two weeks to avoid the loss of federal funds. The letter contended that a 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling outlawing consideration of race in admissions means that colleges receiving federal funds should no longer have anything related to diversity, equity and inclusion [DEI] practices, policies or programs.
The letter asserted that barred activities included scholarships, student housing, student life offerings, or graduation celebrations for any specific racial or ethnic group. The Education Department’s letter also stated that schools must comply by Feb. 28 or face investigation and loss of federal funds for financial aid, federally backed student loans, federal work study monies and other programs.
Even before the letter was sent, some institutions – including Vanderbilt University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Colorado – cancelled events, changed program names, and even scrubbed public-facing websites. Sewanee has so far not followed suit. Vice Chancellor Robert Pearigen recently told staff and faculty that the University administration is closely following the issue and consulting with colleagues around the country.
Late on Friday Feb. 21, a federal judge in Baltimore issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration’s DEI ban after the National Association of Diversity OFficers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors and other groups filed suit.s. Hours before the TRO was handed down, Sewanee’s AAUP chapter issued a statement on Friday condemning the Dear Colleague letter as an unconstitutional overreach.
And on Tuesday, Feb. 26, a federal lawsuit filed by the American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association accused the Trump admininstration of trying “to radically upend and rewrite” federal civil rights laws.
The Sewanee Purple is reprinting the Sewanee AAUP chapter’s Feb. 21 statement with permission.
The members of the University of the South chapter of the AAUP commit to standing united, with staff and administration, against the efforts of the Trump Administration’s Office of Civil Rights to undermine protections, programming, and support for minority students, faculty, and staff. As set forth in our statement of purpose, the University of the South “is an institution of the Episcopal Church dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom in close community and in full freedom of inquiry” with the goal of preparing students to “search for truth” and “seek justice”. In its broad and vague assault on any programming intended to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion, the Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague” letter of February 14, 2025 cynically seeks to undermine the academic and religious freedom of the University to pursue this mission in accordance with the highest intellectual standards of our academic disciplines and the stated commitment of the Episcopal Church to the ministry of racial reconciliation.
The letter threatens the loss of federal funding for violations concerning “admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life” that involve race-consciousness; while DEI and admissions offices are especially targeted, the letter limits institutions of higher learning in every aspect of their existence. Indeed, the very breadth of the threat and the vagueness of its attack on DEI programs in particular seem intended to spread fear and promote self-censorship at every level of education. The “Dear Colleague” letter provides, as the Trump Administration has provided to federal employees, a very brief timeline for compliance and means for informing on those who appear to have not complied. This is part of a concerted effort to undermine the nation’s institutions of higher education; J.D. Vance, the Vice-President, has called professors “the enemy” and promised “to honestly and aggressively attack the universities in this country.”
We believe that following this directive will imperil the University of the South’s educational mission and put its faculty, students, and staff at risk. All areas of the University, from student groups to teaching and research, would be affected. We further believe that any attempt to comply will open us to surveillance, as any student or employee would be able to report on any perceived failure or misstep. There is no way for an institution of higher learning in the twenty-first century to honestly comply with this directive, and the directive is designed, we believe, to sow uncertainty and distrust. It makes education more difficult and less meaningful for all of our students, who are here not only to learn content and skills, but to become ethical actors in the world. It is targeted explicitly at the very structures that seek to repair generations of discrimination against minority students, reaching even to their own organizations and celebrations of achievement.
The contents of the “Dear Colleague” letter are egregious and represent an overreaching interpretation of the Supreme Court’s decision in SFFA v. Harvard. As the letter rightfully points out, racial discrimination is wrong. As a result, the exclusion of racial groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education is also wrong, as it is a direct consequence of the very discriminatory practices the letter outlines. We cannot, on the one hand, claim to oppose racial discrimination while, on the other, oppose the very tools and strategies designed to foster an inclusive environment.
Secondly, under this letter, students would be barred from even forming race-based organizations. This is only feasible if we decide to erase America’s legacy of racial exclusion. Let’s also be realistic—while the “Dear Colleague” letter speaks only in terms of race, it is important to recognize that such a narrowly tailored focus has broader implications for other areas covered under anti-discrimination protections. Today, it’s racial groups; tomorrow, it will be freedom of expression, gender-based groups, religious minorities, and individuals with disabilities.
The question before us is this: Will we, as a university, stand to protect our most vulnerable populations, or will we sit idly by while such groups are thrown under the bus? History is watching, and it will not judge kindly those who remain silent in the face of oppression. Higher education institutions represent a crucial safeguard in the fight to preserve democracy. Will we rise to the occasion, or will we join the chorus of complicity through inaction, indifference, or silence?
The University of the South chapter of the AAUP pledges to oppose this directive, and calls upon other faculty, staff, and administration to oppose it as well. Specifically, we ask that the administration refuse to follow the “Dear Colleague” letter by preserving, and indeed increasing, our commitment to “build a community enriched by our diversity and centered on equity, justice, mutual respect, and shared responsibility”. We urge our colleagues to not allow fear to prompt us to preemptively retreat from our work towards unity and racial healing nor from the goal that “everyone deserves to be treated with mutual respect and dignity regardless of difference, and to feel a strong sense of belonging, connection, safety, and value within our community,” as expressed by our Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
We also believe that our upper administration should work to persuade other leaders in higher education to stand united against this attack, not caving to unjust demands but arguing forcefully and urgently for the values our institution holds dear–values that are under direct assault by those who have penned the “Dear Colleague” letter. A united front would make the “Dear Colleague” letter unenforceable, and could show the current political administration that they cannot destroy higher education in this country. Now is a time for solidarity in the face of a federal administration who has made their anti-intellectual and anti-academic goals obvious.