New DEI Guidance To Be Shared With Institutions of Higher Education Within 120 Days Under Additional Executive Order

Overview
Yesterday, CSPEN shared with you a list of the Executive Orders issued by President Trump on Inauguration Day which we believed were important for the community to be aware of. The EOs were broken down into three categories: 1) Federal Policy Freezes & Recissions; 2) Societal Issues; and 3) Cabinet Level Agency Administration and included a very brief summary and key quote from the EO itself.

Yesterday, the Trump Administration put forth two new EOs. One focused on the hiring practices within the aviation community, while a second, entitled, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-based Opportunity” (www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/) focuses upon violations of the civil-rights laws of the Nation under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – including an explicit references the current use of DEI or DEIA policies at institutions of higher education and directives within the order to provide additional guidance to both Elementary and Secondary and Higher Education communities within 120 days.

Today the Trump Administration released two “Fact Sheets” providing further details on the intent of the orders and the fulfillment of campaign promises to “terminate DEI in the federal government, protect equal opportunity, and force schools to end discriminatory admissions policies…”

Below are key excerpts from the declaration.

Purpose
The declaration states that the purpose of the EO is:

“Longstanding Federal civil-rights laws protect individual Americans from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. These civil-rights protections serve as a bedrock supporting equality of opportunity for all Americans. As President, I have a solemn duty to ensure that these laws are enforced for the benefit of all Americans.

Yet today, roughly 60 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, critical and influential institutions of American society, including the Federal Government, major corporations, financial institutions, the medical industry, large commercial airlines, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) or “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” (DEIA) that can violate the civil-rights laws of this Nation.

Illegal DEI and DEIA policies not only violate the text and spirit of our longstanding Federal civil-rights laws, they also undermine our national unity, as they deny, discredit, and undermine the traditional American values of hard work, excellence, and individual achievement in favor of an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system. Hardworking Americans who deserve a shot at the American Dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex.

These illegal DEI and DEIA policies also threaten the safety of American men, women, and children across the Nation by diminishing the importance of individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination when selecting people for jobs and services in key sectors of American society, including all levels of government, and the medical, aviation, and law-enforcement communities. Yet in case after tragic case, the American people have witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing.

The Federal Government is charged with enforcing our civil-rights laws. The purpose of this order is to ensure that it does so by ending illegal preferences and discrimination.”

The EO goes on to mandate “all executive departments and agencies (agencies) to terminate all discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements. I further order all agencies to enforce our longstanding civil-rights laws and to combat illegal private-sector DEI preferences, mandates, policies, programs, and activities.”

Education Guidance
Specifically the order, under Section 5, states:

“Within 120 days of this order, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Education shall jointly issue guidance to all State and local educational agencies that receive Federal funds, as well as all institutions of higher education that receive Federal grants or participate in the Federal student loan assistance program under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, 20 U.S.C. 1070 et seq., regarding the measures and practices required to comply with Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 600 U.S. 181 (2023).

What’s Next
CSPEN will share more information on the impact of this most recent declaration on tomorrow’s CSPEN Federal Legislative & Regulatory Update webinar.