Amid the flurry of executive orders issued in his first weeks in office, President Donald Trump is taking aim at DEI programs by cutting funding and firing federal employees. With lawsuits pouring in from around the country against the orders, publicly funded institutions find themselves in limbo.
Around the country, state colleges are backing away from the programming that proliferated in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests that followed. Even in the Democratic stronghold of Massachusetts, flagship institutions like UMass Boston have already moved to rename their website’s DEI page to the more anodyne title “Inclusion & Belonging.” The uncertainty of the moment is clear when speaking with the heads of Berkshire County’s public colleges.
“Equity has been at the core of every community colleges work since our inception back in the in the late 50s and 60s and to this day, and I think that will always be part of who we are, but we provide the same level of support for every single student who comes here, and we meet students where they are. We're not going to provide some level of- I'm sorry, Josh, I'm thinking about how to answer that question carefully," said Ellen Kennedy, the president of Pittsfield-based Berkshire Community College. “So far, there's just been a lot of speculation of what's been happening, of what could happen. We haven't had any specific executive orders other than the one that paused funding briefly a week and a half or so ago, in which we had eight funds that were impacted, but then they removed that. And so, we haven't had any specific executive orders that directly impact Berkshire Community College at this point in time, and we continue to be an open access institution and provide the same level of support to every single student. We meet them where they are, and we provide support for them to be successful.”
Kennedy offered a snapshot of BCC’s DEI efforts to date.
“It’s all been around access," the president told WAMC. "We have focused efforts with our student community in our creating a community of belonging, a sense of belonging on the campus. We have programming for our employees, we have programming in our [Osher Lifelong Learning Institute] program. I mean, we have programming across all those areas and people focused on that kind of work, and that effort and focus will continue. It might not continue with that specific label if that has become a lightning rod for attention, but the work itself remains critical.”
She says the impact of the initiatives have been clear.
“It's been very positive to see the margins between our students decrease, that we're seeing stronger outcomes from all of our students," said Kennedy. "We're seeing an improvement in our efforts for students to persist and complete degrees, we're seeing more students returning to the campus and continuing their education- And I think all of that is around our equity and inclusion work in particular.”
Kennedy says BCC is in constant communication with the state about best practices during the tumultuous start to the year, and adds the college will adhere to the rule of law. That said, she says the core of the DEI concept is already baked into the community college mission.
“Our mission, our values, how we how we impact our community is all around equity and access, and that will continue," Kennedy told WAMC. "I think it's just it's always been there, and it's always been in higher education, and it's an opportunity for everyone to have access to an education that could change the trajectory of their life and their children's lives and their families lives.”
In North Adams, Kennedy’s counterpart at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts offered a history lesson on how the core tenants of DEI have long been a part of the American experience.
“In 1870, the voting rights for men of all races, the 15th Amendment, was created to allow men of all races to vote. That was an access and opportunity model. In 1920 that voting right was extended to women in the 19th Amendment- Again, access and opportunity. And more recently, we can look at the Americans with Disability Act, the GI Bill- All of those examples are really about presenting opportunities for people to have access to something, an opportunity to participate more fully in the life of society or an institution," said MCLA President Dr. Jamie Birge. “I think there's a direct link to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging programs today. Although the language is different, it is still about creating access and opportunity for people that haven't had an equal opportunity or equal access historically. So, I'm a little surprised that people are so concerned about these things, because for more than 100 years, American society has valued access and opportunity programs. It's just that today we call that something a little bit different- We call it DEI.”
He tells WAMC that the public liberal arts college has no intention to halt its efforts toward diversity, equity, and inclusion at this time.
“The Board of Higher Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a strategic plan for racial equity," Birge explained. "They expect institutions to create programs that that offer greater access and greater opportunities for students. We're operating still under the BHE strategic plan for racial equity and our own strategic plan, which focuses on the advancement of all of our students.”
Like Kennedy, Birge says the federal government can police language all it wants, but MCLA’s mission will remain the same.
“What I could say is more likely it would be that we won't change our programs- We'll continue to focus on access and opportunity, we'll find ways to engage our students who have historically not been able to access higher education," he told WAMC. "Remember, 50% of our students are first generation students. They come from families that, they're the first in their families to attend college, so they don't know what access really has been historically. So, we want our students to be able to have access. We'll continue to focus on those things.”
