Caught in the midst of an ever-changing situation, Ramapo College is attempting to adapt to education policy alterations from the administration of President Donald Trump. On Feb. 14, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to public colleges and universities across the country outlining changes schools must abide by to avoid losing federal funding.
Among the points outlined in the letter, the office says “American educational institutions have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families.”
The letter continues, saying “Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism’ and advanced discriminatory policies and practices.”
In the closing paragraphs of the message, the letter directly says “Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding.”
In the time since the letter was received, there have been multiple back-and-forth rulings that block the DOE’s power to uphold the messages. Despite this, there is still reason to believe that the Trump administration will eventually take action on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies in the future.
“For me personally, [the letter] is concerning,” Provost Michael Middleton said in an interview. “I want to make sure that our values are upheld, and I’m concerned we’re put in the position of our values as an institution being questioned. I believe in the strength of our diverse population,” he said.
The Ramapo administration has been consistently meeting to discuss the ongoing situation, with President Cindy Jebb leading the charge. “[Jebb] has been on calls with the Secretary of higher education. She’s connecting with our external stakeholders, she’s really been a strong champion for the campus,” Middleton said of Jebb’s actions.
What remains the most important factor for Ramapo throughout this time is maintaining their values as an institution.
“We’ll take action as we need to,” Middleton said. “We know that the [Trump] administration has issued executive orders and other directives, but we also know that those things are being engaged by the courts and by the state governments.”
For now, the college remains in a wait-and-see period as the courts continue to sort out the demands from the new administration.
What remains the most important factor for Ramapo throughout this time is maintaining their values as an institution.
“The hard part was that that letter didn’t provide any directive, right?” Middleton said. “So right now, it’s a really big idea, and we’re trying not to be overly worried about an idea until we see how it might play out,” he said.
Still, members of the Ramapo community remain concerned for the future and the attacks on DEI. “We have several faculty members with federal grants, and they’re concerned because there’s been a lot of mixed information about the future of federal grants and the parameters of them,” Middleton said.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday that any school that allows “illegal protests” will have all federal funding to that school halted, marking yet another threat to federal funding.
Included in those concerned about the threatened changes are Ramapo students, particularly those potentially targeted by the letter.
“Our faculty also are concerned about our students,” Middleton said. “They want to make sure our students are okay, especially our most vulnerable students, and our folks who may be international students or LGBTQ students, that we’re still a safe and accepting place for them.”
On Friday, the DOE sent a follow-up to the “Dear Colleague” letter that addressed questions regarding the content of the original message. Included in the follow-up was a clarification that DEI is not “unlawful,” but did state that “Schools may not operate policies or programs under any name [including DEI] that treat students differently based on race, engage in racial stereotyping, or create hostile environments for students of particular races.”
The follow-up also attempts to clarify whether or not students and teachers are allowed to talk about DEI-related issues under Title VI, saying “Nothing in Title VI, its implementing regulations, or the Dear Colleague Letter requires or authorizes a school to restrict any rights otherwise protected by the First Amendment.”
Added in that section, however, is a note targeting schools that says “The more extreme practices at a university—such as requiring students to participate in privilege walks… mandating courses, orientation programs, or trainings that are designed to emphasize and focus on racial stereotypes, and assigning them coursework that requires them to identify by race and then complete tasks differentiated by race—are all forms of school-on-student harassment that could create a hostile environment under Title VI.”
As the situation with the DOE letters continues to unfold, of greater concern to Middleton are recent budget cuts announced by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy that will directly affect Ramapo. “That’s the biggest worry for us,” he said. “The federal support received through state support just may make a challenging budget situation worse.”
Although Middleton couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the upcoming cuts would affect the school, he’s confident that Ramapo will emerge from this stronger than before, adding “We’ll set up a process to really think about how to enact budget cuts that have the most minimal impact on campus … Certainly the thing that we’d like to do is to grow our way out of any budget concerns, by growing our enrollments.”
wjackso2@ramapo.edu
Featured photo by Jordyn Baham
