The Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion no longer exists at Tulane University.
The former EDI office has been replaced with a new one: the Office of Academic Excellence and Opportunity, according to a statement sent to Tulane University by President Michael Fitts on Thursday, March 13.
Fitts announced that the Trump administration’s threats to strip Tulane of over $320 million in federal funding has led to this shift. Trump’s threats to EDI began in his campaign and manifested in a letter from the U.S. The Department of Education released on Feb. 14 that called for all educational institutions to end racially-conscious practices or risk losing federal funding.
The legality of the Department of Education’s order is unclear. The letter itself is not legally binding, so universities are open to challenge it in court.
“Because federal guidance and threats of drastic funding cuts in government support have added new urgency to our conversations,” the statement reads, “we are announcing a new institutional endeavor led by Dr. Anneliese Singh and her staff, which will include a fundamental shift and transition of the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion into the Office of Academic Excellence and Opportunity.”
Tulane’s Office of EDI was started in 2020 “in response to the voices of Tulane University students, staff, faculty administration, alumni, and community members who asked for increased support and coordination attending to EDI and racial equity progress on campus,” according to the website’s about page that now has the URL of AEO. Anneliese Singh joined Tulane faculty as the chief diversity officer in 2020.
“This new office will forge partnerships with programs, schools and departments university-wide to promote success and positive outcomes for all students, faculty and staff,” Fitts said.
The federal funding Tulane receives goes towards “ground-breaking” research, financial aid, loans, work-study programs and more essential pillars of Tulane’s ability to educate.
“Creating the Office of Academic Excellence and Opportunity is intended to accurately reflect the purpose and broad scope of the important and ongoing work being done to build a community aligned with our Core Values,” Fitts’ statement said. “In this new undertaking, as always, we will be guided by our principles and by the law, both of which call for opportunities equally open to all, without bias for or against any groups.”
Six days after the letter was released, Fitts sent out a university-wide statement announcing that Tulane was looking into how to comply with the new guidance.
Tulane is one of many major universities scrubbing EDI from their practices, including Vanderbilt University, Northeastern University, Ohio State University, Rice University, University of Southern California, University of Miami, Duke University, Southern Methodist University and more.
However, other comparable schools still have EDI on their websites. The University of Michigan, Washington University in Saint Louis, Emory University, Villanova University and others still have active websites for their offices of EDI or DEI, at the time of publication.
