Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with additional information from Institute Communications and the latest news about SB120.
On February 25, Student Government Association (SGA) leadership heard about what they thought was a town hall between SGA and members of Georgia Tech’s administration. But when they arrived that evening, over a hundred students packed the Smithgall auditorium, lining the walls and sitting on the aisle stairs. Administration then confirmed the rumor spreading around campus — changes were coming to Tech programs relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and students wanted to hear how drastic the shift would be.
Tech is the latest institution to have to comply with the flurry of federal directives targeting DEI coming from the Trump administration.
The Department of Education‘s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued a “Dear Colleague Letter” on February 14, setting its policies around DEI initiatives in schools that receive federal funding. The letter is not a legal document, but it does outline OCR’s interpretation of existing law, especially anti-discrimination regulations in the Civil Rights Act and the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision that found affirmative action in admissions to be unconstitutional.
“Put simply,” the letter says, “educational institutions may neither separate or segregate students based on race, nor distribute benefits or burdens based on race.” Violating these rules puts the entirety of a school’s federal funding on the line, and for Tech, that is over $1 billion. Tech ranks No. 3 for federally funded research in the country.
“We’re definitely very concerned about federal funding,” Abbigail Tumpey, Vice President of Institute Communications told the Technique. If OCR decides Tech is not following federal law, all that funding could disappear. Tumpey explained that the letter’s two-week compliance deadline and strict enforcement approach were different from other Dear Colleague letters Tech has received.
Tech’s compliance strategy attempts to balance the functionality of existing programs with an emphasis that these programs are available to all students. According to an email to students from the Vice President for Student Engagement Dr. Luoluo Hong, this involves “restructuring,” which includes establishing a new unit called Belonging and Student Support. Tech’s resource centers, like the LGBTQIA Resource Center, the Women’s Resource Center, and Black Culture, Innovation, and Technology, have moved under the new department. The webpages for the resource centers already redirect to the Belonging & Student Support site, and the physical signs on campus have already been removed.
“We are going to pivot on our terms,” Dr. Hong said at the Feb. 25 town hall. “The names of departments will be different. We are looking at creating new departments that still support students, so the activities, programs, and events that we offer now are still going to go on.” As of now, all staff will keep their jobs. What restructuring exactly looks like will become more clear in the coming weeks, but, right now, Tech’s programs are undergoing something closer to a rebrand than a loss of services for students. “We believe that if we want to protect the work, we should focus more on the product, the outcome, and serving you, and less on what we call it or how we name it right now,” Dr. Hong said. “If you ask me to pick, I will sacrifice the names… because I want to protect the substantive work.” Tech will continue to evaluate its programs and activities to ensure its compliance with federal and state laws.
“It’s a disappointing thing to happen but it’s not necessarily the most surprising thing we’ve seen happen,” Kaz Hayes, the president of Pride Alliance, told the Technique about the changes. “I think, from my perspective, it’s very much a time where student [organizations]… are going to have to step up and fill that role that having these centers consolidated is going to leave in our communities.”
Student groups are protected from the new guidelines under the First Amendment.
The town hall — and the one two days later — were tense, with interjections from the audience peppering the meeting, and others wanting clarity on Tech’s response to the federal directives. But Hong emphasized that communication with students about this changing landscape would remain one of her top priorities and that the town halls were designed to incorporate feedback before Tech’s compliance deadline of March 1. Another town hall is scheduled for this Monday, March 10.
“It is promising to see Tech students fight for what they believe in,” said Harrison Baro, fourth-year CE and president of Georgia Tech Student Ambassadors.
Although the tense town halls initially elicited student frustration, students redirected their feelings to the agendas of the state and federal governments, which both are considering aggressive anti-DEI policies.
“It’s very good that the administration is creating venues and opportunities for students to show their concern because I think that we need our administration to advocate, especially at a [University System of Georgia] level and a state level, but also at the federal level, for the importance of these measures and how much students care,” Baro said.
Tech administration has said that they believe they are — and were — in full compliance with federal law. But whether OCR and the White House feel the Institute is complying with their directives remains to be seen. The Dear Colleague letter, and a subsequent FAQ about the letter, emphasize that the new guidelines are gunning for more than just the names of programs.
“Whether a policy or program violates Title VI does not depend on the use of specific terminology such as ‘diversity,’ ‘equity,’ or ‘inclusion,’” OCR’s FAQ said. At the bottom of the Dear Colleague letter, OCR links a form to file complaints against any educational institution someone may feel is violating the new rules.
“We want to ensure that we provide services for all students without having group designations of people based on certain characteristics,” General Counsel and Vice President for Ethics, Compliance, and Legal Affairs Danette Joslyn-Gaul told the Technique. Any semblance of exclusion of one group of students over another could be seen as not following federal law.
However, the federal compliance situation may be about to get even more complicated. Reports Thursday say that President Donald Trump is preparing to sign an executive order dissolving the Department of Education, the very department setting the new guidelines.
The state government initially was another obstacle for Tech programs. The Georgia State Senate drafted SB120, a bill that bans “any programs or activities that advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion.” But the bill didn’t make it past Crossover Day—the last day for a bill to move from one chamber of the General Assembly to the other—on Thursday, effectively killing the bill. Several Tech students protested against the bill the same day.
As of now, the substance of the Institute’s programs will remain the same. “You’ll walk into the places and spaces and see the same staff, fellow students, and faculty that you’ve always seen, and that will not change,” Dr. Hong said. “We will continue to be here for you as we have been.”
The question now is whether that will be the new status quo, or if this is just the beginning of a much larger transformation on campuses across the country.
“Students are nervous about if this is what’s happening now, a little over a month into the administration,” Baro said, “What’s gonna happen in six months?”