MSU cancels DEI event following Trump order, threat to investigate

• Michigan State University canceled a planned webinar about the future of DEI
• The action came a day after President Donald Trump issued an executive order threatening investigations
• MSU and the University of Michigan are potential targets for federal probes over DEI programs

A Michigan State University webinar on diversity, equity and inclusion was canceled just one day after newly elected President Donald Trump issued an executive order “terminating” DEI in federal contracting and spending.

The webinar, scheduled for Tuesday and titled “The Future of DEI policy at MSU,” was scrapped Thursday. Organizers hope to reschedule but have not set a date.

Organizers say the university-sponsored event is delayed while the planned speakers — all university employees — try to make sense of a flurry of orders coming from a new administration that has threatened public universities that do not back off DEI efforts.

While the postponement of a webinar may not signal retreat on diversity, it comes as Trump threatens universities and private employers over those policies. 

The DEI order Trump signed last week calls on federal agencies to consider investigating universities with endowments of at least $1 billion. That could include MSU ($4.4 billion endowment) and the University of Michigan ($18 billion) as possible targets.

Related:

• Facing DEI scrutiny, University of Michigan abandons ‘diversity statements’ in hiring
• Trump order closes help desk in Detroit court for those facing deportation
• As Trump threatens ‘sanctuary cities,’ Michigan officials ask: Who, us?

The delayed DEI webinar is a small example of the tightwire university leaders are walking in the early days of Trump’s second stint in the White House.

“The Trump administration has issued a set of restrictions that indirectly impact all universities’ capacities to pursue diversity and inclusion programs, which have long been the basic tools for integration and desegregation in higher education,” said Brendan Cantwell, an MSU professor who studies higher education politics, governance and administration.

“No one knows how serious the follow-through on these threats is going to be,” Cantwell said, “but no university wants to be the first to find out.”

University diversity, equity and inclusion programs have become a political lightning rod in recent years. Conservatives say DEI efforts stifle free speech and academic freedom and have led to admissions and hiring decisions based on race. Proponents say DEI helps improve understanding of other groups and boosts academic success among minorities. 

Trump regularly blasted DEI during last year’s campaign, and he wasted no time trying to crack down on diversity programs after he took office Jan. 20.

He banned programs in federal offices, including firing DEI administrators and is planning to halted them in the military. He also went after programs at universities, saying in his executive order that “many corporations and universities use DEI as an excuse for biased and unlawful employment practices and illegal admissions preferences.”

Trump has also threatened to tax endowments of “woke” schools, though it’s unclear how the president would delineate woke and non-woke universities. 

Dan Hurley, executive director of the Michigan Association of State Universities advocacy group said he’s sure that “conversations are already underway” at the state’s public universities about how to “stay true to their missions while remaining in compliance with federal law.

“Universities coast to coast are analyzing the executive orders and reviewing current policies,” Hurley said.

One example of growing caution: Rutgers University in New Jersey on Friday canceled a conference that was to focus on helping students at historically Black colleges and universities get apprenticeships.

The threat of losing federal funds is a big deal for a public university. MSU received $435 million in federal money for research in fiscal year 2023, more than half of the school’s total research funding. The University of Michigan received $1.17 billion in 2024.

The University of Michigan’s DEI program came under fire last fall when The New York Times reported that the school had spent roughly $250 million on related initiatives since 2016 and has one of the largest programs of its kind in the country. That figure includes $64 million for Go Blue Guarantee, which provides free tuition for low and middle-income Michigan residents, and Wolverine Pathways, which works with seventh through 12th graders in Detroit, Grand Rapids, Southfield and Ypsilanti. Students who complete Wolverine Pathways and are admitted to U-M Ann Arbor or U-M Dearborn receive free university tuition for four years.

As of 2021, U-M had 163 DEI personnel, the largest staff of its kind in the country, according to a study by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that has targeted such initiatives as "bloat" that takes away resources from academics.

MSU spokesperson Emily Guerrant said the East Lansing-based university has “36 to 50” staff members (out of about 12,000 employees) whose primary responsibility is diversity, equity and inclusion, including 18 that work in the college’s Institutional Diversity and Inclusion office. MSU has 52,000 students.

Organizers of the MSU DEI meeting told Bridge Michigan they hope to reschedule the webinar, which is open to staff, faculty and students, for some time in February. The name of the webinar may change, said Suchitra Webster, director of the office of community and relations.

More than 550 people had signed up to watch the webinar.

“As those EOs and other missives were coming at such a rapid pace, it was difficult to analyze each issuance quickly and adequately explain each one thoroughly,” Webster said. “Having that knowledge and expertise to fully decipher and decode was an expectation of our audience.”

In a letter sent Friday to students and staff, MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz acknowledged tricky times ahead with the federal government.  

“The changes outlined in the recently announced executive orders and proposed legislative shifts may create some uncertainty and concern,” he wrote. “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.

“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.”