President Trump orders end to government DEI programs
Illustration by Killian Goodale-Porter.
Ellie Waltman, Copy Editor
President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring diversity, equity and inclusion programs on Jan. 20, putting an end to “radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing,” according to whitehouse.gov.
Federal agencies were quick to comply with Trump’s executive orders. The Defense Intelligence Agency ordered a pause on activities relating to Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Juneteenth and other “special observances,” according to NBC News.
VCU’s Office of the President sent out a statement on Jan. 29 saying they were “monitoring federal executive orders and communications issued by the White House.” VCU released a statement for Black History Month on Feb. 3, according to VCU News.
Abdullah Mohamed, a third-year mechanical engineering student and a political action chair for NAACP at VCU, stated in a message that VCU’s response to Trump’s orders is not shocking.
“I haven’t seen any official statement,” Mohamed stated. “They did technically post a picture for MLK Day on their story, but they’ve bandwagoned off of others’ posts.”
Haya Malik, a third-year economics student, said she thinks Trump’s orders will harm marginalized communities.
“It keeps white people in power,” Malik said. “They’ll still have that privilege while marginalized communities will still be at the bottom.”
Mikayla Evans, a second-year biology student, said she is unsure what could be done in response to the executive orders.
“I feel like it goes back on a lot that’s been worked on throughout history without any regard to the people that the DEI policies positively affected,” Evans said. “I think it’s crazy that so many executive orders are being passed with no pushback.”
