The Department of Education said Friday that it had launched investigations into alleged race-based discrimination at three California universities and 49 other colleges nationwide as the Trump administration pushes schools to eliminate campus diversity, equity and inclusion programs that it says hurt white and Asian American students.
The investigations — at UC Berkeley, Cal Poly Humboldt and Cal State San Bernardino — come roughly a month after the department issued a memo threatening to revoke federal funding to schools that supported DEI efforts and consider race in their campus programming — including advertising minority-focused scholarships, or holding graduation ceremonies for cultural groups, such as Black and Latino students.
In addition to the California universities, the investigations target public and private campuses in 40 states and Washington, D.C.
“Students must be assessed according to merit and accomplishment, not prejudged by the color of their skin,” said a statement from Education Secretary Linda McMahon. “We will not yield on this commitment.”
The California cases and the vast majority of those nationally zero in on partnerships the department said campuses have with the PhD Project, a New Jersey-based nonprofit that promotes “workplace diversity by increasing the diversity of business school faculty who encourage, mentor and enhance the preparation of tomorrow’s leaders,” according to its website.
The Education Department said the nonprofit “purports to provide doctoral students with insights into obtaining a PhD and networking opportunities but limits eligibility based on the race of participants.”
UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said the school has “an unwavering commitment to having a campus free of discrimination. We will respond to any complaints or allegations through the process prescribed by the DOE.”
Amy Bentley-Smith, a spokeswoman for the California State University system, said “CSU has recently learned of the investigations and will be reviewing and seeking to understand the nature of the claim and will cooperate with the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights in any investigation. The CSU continues to comply with longstanding applicable federal and state laws and CSU policies and does not discriminate or provide preferences on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.”
In a statement, a spokewoman for the PhD Project said applications were, as of this year, “open to anyone.” The spokesperson did not respond to a question about when the change occurred.
“For the last 30 years, The PhD Project has worked to expand the pool of workplace talent by developing business school faculty who inspire, mentor, and support tomorrow’s leaders,” said Vivian King, the organization’s spokesperson. “Our vision is to create a broader talent pipeline of current and future business leaders who are committed to excellence and to each other, through networking, mentorship, and unique events.”
On the “university partner” section of its website, the organization lists the three California campuses and many of the others under investigation. The website also lists dozens of additional campuses that were not named in the department’s investigation, including UCLA, USC and Cal State Los Angeles.
Education Department officials did not respond to a request asking for more details on the discrimination allegations.
Friday’s announcement was sent from the department’s Office for Civil Rights, which is tasked with enforcing federal anti-discrimination law.
As part of mass Education Department layoffs this week, hundreds of civil rights attorneys were were let go, leading to closures of the regional offices in San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago, Cleveland, Boston, New York and Philadelphia. The San Francisco office had 50 workers who handled the vast majority of casework for California. Department officials did not respond to a question Friday about who would investigate the California campuses. Civil rights offices in Seattle, Denver, Kansas City and Washington remain open.
The department Friday also announced separate investigations into six universities over allegations of awarding “impermissible race-based scholarships” and one for allegedly “administering a program that segregates students on the basis of race.”
Those universities are: Grand Valley State University; Ithaca College; New England College of Optometry; the University of Alabama; the University of Minnesota Twin Cities; and the University of South Florida. The announcement also named the University of Tulsa School of Medicine, but such a medical school does not exist.
The department did not specify which school among the seven was under investigation for alleged racial segregation.
The actions are the first investigations since the Trump administration released a letter a month ago telling all U.S. universities and school districts that using “race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life” violates anti-discrimination law.
The Feb. 14 guidance did not announce a new law. Instead, it put forward the Trump administration’s interpretation of existing law.
Schools across the country have rushed to comply by eliminating DEI-related offices and positions and removing DEI language from their websites. At USC, a universitywide DEI office shut down and merged with a university “culture” team. Departments deleted online diversity statements. The School of Cinematic Arts removed websites promoting a scholarship for Black and Indigenous students.
On Feb. 28, the Education Department walked back some of its guidance, saying that it did not consider all diversity programs to be illegal.
“Schools must consider whether any school programming discourages members of all races from attending, either by excluding or discouraging students of a particular race or races, or by creating hostile environments based on race for students who do participate,” the department’s updated guidance said.
Trump has said he wants to shut down the Education Department and directed McMahon to put herself “out of a job” but would need congressional support to close it. In the meantime, federal education officials have focused their attention on anti-DEI efforts, preventing transgender students from playing on girls sports teams, and investigating antisemitism allegations stemming from campus protests in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s war in Gaza.
Federal agencies are negotiating with Columbia University after the Trump administration canceled $400 million in federal grants over the campus’ handling of pro-Palestinian protests.
Separately, Trump administration officials are seeking out Columbia foreign students for deportation who it accuses of supporting Hamas — a U.S.-designated terrorist group — for their roles in pro-Palestinian protests. After the high-profile arrest Sunday of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student and Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia protests last spring, authorities arrested a second person who participated in the campus demonstrations and have revoked the visa of another student.
The Education Department Monday said 60 additional campuses are under investigation for potential financial sanctions similar to those levied against Columbia. They included four UCs — San Diego, Santa Barbara, Berkeley and Davis — as well as USC, Pomona College, Stanford, Chapman University, Santa Monica College and Sacramento State.
A multiagency task force on antisemitism also plans to visit 10 U.S. campuses, including USC, UCLA and UC Berkeley, and the Department of Justice this month launched an investigation into a “potential pattern” of antisemitic discrimination against employees in the University of California system. The task force has also requested meetings Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and mayors of New York, Chicago and Boston over their “responses to incidents of antisemitism at schools and on college campuses.”
