President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency is taking a sledgehammer to federal spending, starting with funding for ideological grants and programs at odds with the new administration’s agenda. DEI initiatives have been among the first to get the boot.
This has been nothing short of a crisis for federally funded colleges, including several in Michigan, which have happily applied for and received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of federal grants to prop up various DEI scholarships and policies.
In 2024, for example, Grand Rapids Community College received up to $1 million from the National Science Foundation to “increase diversity” in technology fields and promote “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) instruction,” according to USA Spending records.
Also in West Michigan, Grand Valley State University received $2.8 million in 2021 from the Department of Health and Human Services to promote “nursing workforce diversity” by giving minority Michiganders special scholarships to pursue nursing school. “When our patients come in and they don’t see anyone that looks like them, trust will go down, anxiety will increase,” Nina Hudgins, a nurse at Detroit’s Karmanos Cancer Institute, said in 2021 when asked about the scholarship program.
These scholarships presumably were not made available to prospective non-minority students—an obvious legal problem that should help explain why the Trump administration is so eager to dismantle programs like these. If it walks like discrimination and talks like discrimination, it’s probably discrimination!
DOGE already has canceled close to $1 billion worth of similar DEI contracts, according to tech mogul Elon Musk, who is overseeing Trump’s newly minted department. At least $370 million worth of those contracts were specifically education-related.
But losing these contracts is the least of the higher education behemoth’s concerns. Especially in Michigan, where the state’s name-brand universities have embedded DEI into every facet of campus life, these institutions should worry about the Trump administration putting them out of business altogether.
Just this week, DOGE and the Education Department informed federally funded universities that they have till the end of the month to shut down all programs that “separate or segregate students based on race” and “distribute benefits or burdens based on race.” Otherwise, their federal funding will be revoked.
“Schools have been operating on the pretext that selecting students for ‘diversity’ or similar euphemisms is not selecting them based on race,” said Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights. “No longer. Students should be assessed according to merit, accomplishment, and character.”
That’s a big problem for the University of Michigan, which has spent more than $250 million on DEI staff and programming since 2016. It’s also a problem for Michigan State University, which proudly boasts an Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion dedicated to increasing “diversity, ensur[ing] equity, prompt[ing] inclusion, and advanc[ing] outreach and engagement across” campus, along with a grant program that seeks to recruit, retain, and advance “faculty, staff, and students who are members of underrepresented groups.”
The University of Michigan began taking steps to roll back its DEI policies even before Trump took office, likely in anticipation. And Oakland University officials at least seem scared enough at the idea of losing federal funding that they’re making an effort to bring the school into compliance.
Other colleges, however, are going to have to learn the hard way. Michigan State University in particular seems to think this is a fight worth picking.
“We have learned over the years in higher education that full participation of all lived experiences and perspectives is essential in being able to deliver on our core missions,” MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz wrote in a letter to faculty and students last week. “Please know that no matter what happens, we all belong here. The university remains committed to research and educational excellence, inclusivity and dialogue, and we will continue as one team to navigate any changes and challenges that come our way.”
Guskiewicz can talk a big game all he wants, but this isn’t a fight Michigan State can afford to lose. In fiscal year 2024, MSU received more than half of its total research funding from the federal government, totaling $474 million.
Other colleges in Michigan are sneakily trying to rename their diversity offices and programs to avoid federal scrutiny. Wayne State University, for example, renamed its Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to the Office of Inclusive Excellence, and Michigan Technological University moved staff from its Center for Diversity and Inclusion to the Waino Wahtera Center for Student Success. Something tells me they’re going to have to try a bit harder to fool the guy who can literally catch rockets incoming from space.
As Musk has said, DOGE is inevitable—even in Michigan. The state’s colleges might not like it, but they don’t have to. They just have to comply.
Kaylee McGhee White is editor-in-chief of Independent Women Features, a Steamboat Institute media fellow, and a columnist for Michigan Enjoyer. Follow her on X @KayleeDMcGhee.
