Saving DEI on Campus: How GW is fighting back
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On an early spring morning, police swept through the University Yard in George Washington University, sweeping up tents, blankets, food and backpacks. Hours before, students were pepper sprayed and arrested.
A month later, an email landed in Professor Nizar Farsakh’s inbox. It was a new invite to head up a committee, Voices of Community, to allow students a safe space to speak their mind on controversial topics on campus. Farsakh immediately accepted and got to work.
“It's a shame for students to feel that they cannot speak their mind. That's the whole point of coming to college,” Farsakh said. “We feel like we failed the students if we don't do our best to make that happen.”
It was exactly that - speaking up - that made students afraid to show up, because that might not be possible in the next four years. The newly elected Trump administration ran on a promise of dismantling DEI, or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Since the inauguration, the government has enacted a litany of programs to reduce opportunities afforded to individuals on the basis of identity.
“We as a society learned that just because you have laws that claim that we are all equal, in reality, the application is different,” Farsakh explained. “The fact that many of us simply do not have access to resources the way others have unfettered access to resources is one of the main reasons of the inequality.”
President Trump and MAGA Republicans began their threats soon after spring 2024, in which pro-palestinian encampments broke out across the country. As a result of the protests, some Jewish and Israeli students accused students and university officials of anti-semitism. This drew Republicans who cited the allegations of antisemitism as the basis for targeting universities nationwide.
Trump started his attack big: at Harvard. He threatened to pull funding for the university if they did not eliminate DEI policies and change their curriculums. When Harvard refused, the Trump administration pulled almost $2.2 billion in federal funding.
The actions left students across the country rattled. Campuses are filled with identity based student groups of all races, ethnicities, religions, sexualities, and gender identities. These groups look to provide a safe space for students. But for Beatriz, the future Vice President and current Director of Events for the Brazilian Student Association, the current climate is anything but safe.
“We’re all kind of walking on eggshells,” she expressed. “We're just trying to, like, lay low.”
That laying low could be the difference between staying in the United States or being deported back to Brazil. Beatriz, along with most of the people in her organization, are international students under a student visa.
Recently, students on a visa have been targeted if they’ve participated in student protests or anything deemed unacceptable by the Trump Administration. It’s not just Beatriz; a student from MSA also is afraid about student deportations.
“I feel like I've heard a lot of older Muslim people compare it to like right after 9/11,” they said. “It’s definitely very scary and uncertain times.”
But there’s some reprieve possible, at least legally. Madeline Meth, a professor of legal studies at Boston University, explained the legality of the Trump Administration’s actions.
The federal government makes contracts with schools, providing funding as long as the school complies with certain statutory conditions. In this case, the Trump administration is claiming that the universities are actually committing discriminatory acts on campus in violation of the Civil Rights Act. But there’s another aspect to this case that’s very unique.
“When we think about DEI, we're usually focused on the aspect of race and talking about race, but with DEI currently, there's a big conversation around free speech, especially on campuses,” she said. “And that's really where the bigger crackdown is coming from, this retaliatory stance from the pro-Palestinian protests that happened last summer.”
The question of what DEI actually stands for is also something Jesse Appleby from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) holds as well. According to her, the legality of the actual executive order is strong, but the way in which it is executed is flawed.
“Everything with government, there is a process, and there's a process for a reason. You don't have them, essentially making these giant decisions with potentially huge consequences for a large number of people at the drop of a hat, without thinking through everything about it and also figuring out whether it really is legal,” Appleby explained. “So yes, if schools are violating the Civil Rights Act, you could go through a process to eventually hold back funding. But there's a process, and that's not what's happened here.”
She thought about it for another minute.
“Yeah. That’s completely illegal.”
But the Trump administration doesn’t really seem to care. Whether it comes to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Mahmoud Khalil, or other attempts by courts to limit Trump’s executive reach, MAGA conservatives have recently ignored court orders and continued anyways.
On the topic of campuses, George Washington University specifically has been having a hard time. Between sending emails to students with vague language about “free speech concerns” on campus and filing other lawsuits against the administration, GWU hasn’t really taken a hard stance against the current administration on protecting DEI and free speech on campus.
Recently, a group of around 150 universities got together and signed a letter condemning the Trump administration’s actions with Harvard. GWU was notably absent from the list. But possibly for good reason. Professor Farsakh defended the university’s controversial decision.
“In this sense, it’s maybe wiser to lay low,” he admitted.
That’s exactly the mindset that those in the DEI office at GW have; Amy Cohen, Assistant Vice Provost and Executive Director of the Honey Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service,
“They [GW] are standing up where they where they have to, and they are standing for students, sometimes bluntly. They have to do it strategically and quietly,” she said. “The provost has said many times in my presence: We are not doing any illegal DEI. We are not - and he's going to stand up for the DEI that we are doing because it's fully legal.”
Cohen continued to argue that the university would stand up for students against the current administration and protect their rights to free speech and the ability to be comfortable in their own identities on campus.
“I feel confident that GW will stand as strong as it possibly can for the values and the reasons that we're here,” she expressed.
So the university is claiming to stand behind their students. But the messages they gave are very clear: If GW cannot stand up, then GW students have to.
“All students should speak up. Write to your legislators, write to your governors, congresspeople, business owners, really write to them, call them,” she urged. “Make a stand.”
Farsakh further emphasized the need for collective action claiming that the administration is bullying students.
“It is classic authoritarianism. The message is, we are going to do whatever we want to do, and nobody is going to stop us,” he said. “We need a critical mass of people to resist. We need more of these instances where every attempt fails. After a few failed attempts, the administration is going to give up.”
The staff has also made very clear that they believe in DEI and the importance of diversity.
“The whole point of freedom of speech and diversity is to have thesis, antithesis and then synthesis. You need those for those sparring of ideas,” Farsakh said. “And if people are not allowed to create institutions in the way that they feel are representative of those ideas, then that defeats the purpose.”
That same hope is clear amongst student groups on campus. They continue to be committed to providing a safe space for all students.
“I think with us, we're very big on celebrating our culture and kind of not hiding away from it. We're still going to celebrate South Asian heritage, South Asian culture,” Anoushka Chopra, Director of Events for GW’s South Asian Society said. “We're just gonna keep celebrating and showing who we are and that these anti-DEI measures can't really get rid of us no matter what.”
MSA echoed a similar sentiment: ridding campuses of DEI initiatives doesn’t necessarily mean that diversity altogether will be gone.
“Revoking the title doesn't negate any of the experiences that people have had. You're still gonna have marginalized communities that need support,” they said. “We're gonna try our best to provide support for students and try to, you know, work with administration the best we can to ensure that our org is active and has a voice on campus.”
Amongst the students who remain committed to free speech, a slow hum of resistance is stirring. Lawsuits are being filed. Protests are taking place across the country. Americans are starting to stand up for their democracy. At least, that’s what GW hopes students will do.
“You are not gonna like yourself if 20 years from now, you look back and think, I wish I spoke up,” Farsakh expressed. “Yes, it's dangerous. But you also have a lot of agency. You have a lot of power.”
