University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University web pages referencing diversity, equity and inclusion [DEI] initiatives began to disappear from the Internet or change on Thursday, six days after the U.S. Department of Education issued a letter guiding institutions of higher education to remove any scholarships or programs that use race as a criterion for selection.
In a statement shared with Public Source on Friday, a Pitt spokesperson said the university didn’t issue any instructions to change web pages based on specific language or programs.
“The university web ecosystem has more than 150,000 individual pages, most of them maintained by individual units or people. It is not uncommon for pages to be published, unpublished or moved for any number of reasons,” the statement read.
Public Source reached out to other local universities, including CMU, Chatham University and Duquesne University, about web changes and plans with respect to the new administration’s guidelines. No immediate response was received. Websites outlining Chatham and Duquesne’s commitment to DEI were still active Thursday evening.
On Feb. 14, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights issued a letter to “colleagues” in higher education claiming that institutions have discriminated against “white and Asian students” and asserting that “programs may appear neutral on their face” but “are, in fact, motivated by racial considerations.”
The letter instructed all educational institutions to cease “efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of race” in programs, or face loss of federal funding. It indicated that the department would begin to act on the threat by Feb. 28.
Public Source identified several Pitt web pages that had, until recently, described “anti-racist” programs or those focused on students from underrepresented or minority backgrounds that, as of Thursday afternoon, were no longer available online. Public Source is not identifying those pages at the request of sources who feared their programs would be targeted if they appeared in news stories.
Public Source also found that CMU web pages which formerly ended in “diversity” or “diversity, equity and inclusion” now boast different URLs. One page on the “Undergraduate Admission” site now displays “Supporting Access in Admission,” with a section previously titled “Dedicated to DEI” replaced with further information on the admissions process.
CMU’s “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging” web page has been renamed “Inclusive Excellence.” A website archive snapshot for the new page was first captured on Feb. 6.
The university’s DEI office website was still accessible along with a page on its Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion, as of this evening.
At Pitt, a webpage was live as recently as Jan. 25, on which a school within the university was described as intentionally “weaving our commitment to fostering justice, equity, diversity and inclusion” throughout the department. Statistics outlining the percentage of minority, women and LGBTQ+ identifying students, staff, scholars and leaders were available. The link is no longer available.
Another undergraduate research program at the university that previously only targeted Black, Hispanic and Latinx and Native American students has undergone a name change, with the word “diversity” eliminated. The former mission statement of the program read that promoting diversity in the scientific workforce helped “address and eliminate” health disparities in clinical trials. Now, the program is open to any student and all mentions of diversity are removed from the mission statement.
Still surviving as of mid-afternoon: The page for Pitt’s Office for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, the Office of the Provost’s Diversity & Inclusion page, and the university’s diversity and anti-racism statements.
An emergency Pitt School of Medicine faculty meeting was set for Thursday afternoon on topics related to federal funding changes.
Pitt in October boasted of earning Insight Into Diversity magazine’s Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award for eight years running. CMU received the same honor, for the second straight year.
The Department of Education letter doesn’t have the force of law. National higher education groups have urged colleges to not engage in “over-compliance” by doing things such as scrubbing websites. The American Association of University Professors has opposed the letter, with its president writing that: “The way to confront those intent on dismantling our democracy is to join together in mass action.”
Pitt’s actions are part of a larger picture in which universities try to find a path through the whiplash change in approaches to race as President Joe Biden handed the reins to President Donald Trump.
- Texas Christian University’s longstanding professed commitment to “diversity, equity and inclusion” has disappeared from its About page.
- Case Western Reserve University officials have said the current climate is “unsettling” as they’ve joined other Ohio schools in reviewing the letter’s implications.
- The University of Illinois Chicago is grappling with the status of its Latino Cultural Center.
Public Source reached out to other local universities, including Chatham and Duquesne, for comment on plans with respect to the new administration’s guidelines, but no immediate response was received. Web pages outlining these universities’ commitments to DEI were still active Thursday evening.
Editor’s note (2/21 and 2/25): This story was updated after initial publication as more information and comment from Pitt became available.
Maddy Franklin reports on higher ed for Pittsburgh’s Public Source, in partnership with Open Campus, and can be reached at madison@publicsource.org.
