Letter to the Editor

Submitted by Seirra S Boclair-Johnson

President Donald Trump’s recent threat to remove financial support and aid to any funded universities that do not comply with his administration’s new interpretation of existing Title VI anti-discrimination laws and past Supreme Court rulings has raised questions across college campuses concerning the future of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.  

Leaders at UWT, however, are staying committed to the university’s emphasis on DEI initiatives. Part of the confidence in being able to honor that commitment is because the university has always been compliant with current anti-discrimination laws and, at least currently, no new laws have actually been altered or created regarding this new interpretation by the Trump administration. 

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs can take many forms, but they generally describe efforts to increase access to and remove barriers from things like higher education and jobs for those from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, races, and genders,” according to Time  

Magazine’s January 2025 article, titled “What is DEI and What Challenges Does it Face Amid Trump’s Executive Orders.”  

Interim Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion Tanya Velasquez said, “Good news: We have never done that. We have never hosted an event and said this is only for Asian Americans or this is only Black students. The activities we host from the Center for Equity and Inclusion are open to all in our UW Tacoma community.”  

“We don’t know yet if there will be an attempt at a new law. There is no new law that has been proposed, only a new interpretation of the current law that was established as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” Velasquez said. 

Velasquez emphasized that this executive order is not a new law. The Trump administration is telling the university how to start abiding by laws that it was already abiding by, for example, Washington state’s I-200 law that banned affirmative action in college admissions.   

Regardless of the new interpretation, no school in Washington State has been allowed to make college admissions decisions that take race into account, amongst other criteria, since the 1998 I-200 state law, also known as the Washington State Civil Rights Act. 

“The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting,” according to the Washington state I-200 the law found on the I-200 official organization website.  

While UWT complies with I-200, President Trump’s recent reminders sent to all universities via the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, have come from his administration’s opinion that it is not possible to truly abide by these laws with DEI programs present, because they misperceive that the programs discriminate and award benefits to some racial groups but not all.  

“Other programs discriminate in less direct, but equally insidious, ways. DEI programs, for example, frequently preference certain racial groups and teach students that certain racial groups bear unique moral burdens and that others do not. Such programs stigmatize students who belong to particular racial groups based on cruel racial stereotypes. Consequently, they deny students the ability to participate fully in the life of a school,” according to a Feb. 14, 2025 letter, sent by the acting assistant secretary of the Civil Rights Office at The Department of Education, Craig Trainor.  

In addition, the UWT administration and some professors openly support  

DEI initiatives, arguing that it is not discriminatory and that students need these programs to thrive not only in school, but beyond it.  

“This is predicated on a false understanding of DEI work and certainly a wrongful assumption; DEI programs at UW Tacoma are open to all students, even when focusing on the lived experience of different groups. Our work is to build bridges and increase every student’s ability to work and live in a multicultural world, which includes dismantling stereotypes about any group, not promoting them,” Velasquez said.  

One UWT professor in Communications and the Division of the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, David Coon, weighed in on his opinion of the existing DEI programs at UWT.  

“These programs are about opening minds to different perspectives,” Coon said.  

Under current circumstances, with no new laws or alterations to current laws, UWT is staying alert for any new updates and will continue offering services to all students as they have before the Trump administration’s message. If there is an issue of discrimination or harassment, a student can fill out a bias incident report, and it will be properly investigated.  

“My hope is that DEI professionals are grounded in their commitment to equity and inclusivity in order to lead with a humanitarian perspective for the greater good. Regardless of what happens, we can adjust accordingly without compromising and losing the foundation on which we stand in terms of principles. I believe everyone can benefit from learning about the value of diversity, equity and inclusion including those who don’t think it includes them…because it actually does,” Velasquez said.