VCU altered scholarship for descendants of enslaved people following Trump’s DEI cuts
Leaders of the VCU NAACP chapter. From right to left: President Ashley Brown, first vice president Jordan Hill and second vice president Ciara Norfleet. They decried VCU’s changes to the Gabriel Scholars Program. Photo by Andrew Kerley.
Bryer Haywood, Contributing Writer
Andrew Kerley, Executive Editor
VCU adjusted the scope of a scholarship program intended to benefit students descended from enslaved people in order to comply with President Donald Trump’s orders to end Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.
The Gabriel Scholars Program — named after the enslaved Richmond man who started a slave revolt — was launched as a result of a law passed in 2021 requiring Virginia’s five oldest institutions to reckon with their legacy of slavery.
The program was originally intended to benefit Richmond Public Schools graduates, who grew up in close proximity to the MCV Campus, according to VPM News’ initial report. There, the remains of Black people whose bodies and corpses were used for illegal experiments were discovered in 1994.
“It was common for students to bring their slaves with them to college,” said Shawn Utsey, chair of VCU’s Department of African American Studies.
VCU hired an outside firm following Trump’s orders to review remaining DEI language in their policies, including seven scholarships. The firm recommended the university expand eligibility requirements for the Gabriel Scholarship Program to apply to everyone else in Virginia, as being RPS-specific could be interpreted as a proxy for race.
Following suit, VCU expanded the scholarship to include any Virginia student with ties to enslavement or from a community that “continues to experience the negative legacy of enslavement in Richmond,” according to the VPM News report. But that did not come without pushback from Stephanie Rizzi, the director of VCU’s greater racial reconciliation project: Project Gabriel.
“Are scholarships okay as long as they don’t serve majority minority populations? I am just unclear what the actual argument is against focusing on a particular region,” Rizzi wrote in an email to President Michael Rao’s chief of staff, obtained by VPM News.
Trump’s DEI cuts required VCU and other universities to cease considering race in admissions, hiring, promotion, financial aid, scholarships, housing and graduation ceremonies and all other aspects of campus life.
VCU risked losing federal funding if it did not comply with Trump’s orders. In the 2024 fiscal year, the university received $445.4 million in federal dollars, mostly for student loans and research grants.
Seven Gabriel scholarships, $5,000 each, have been awarded to qualified undergraduate students in good academic standing, a VCU spokesperson stated in an email on behalf of Rizzi.
VCU’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations will continue fundraising to support the Project Gabriel Scholarships. Staff are working to assemble a community advisory group that will assist with developing proposals regarding memorialization and community economic benefits, such as student internships.
Ciara Norfleet is the second vice president and education chair for VCU’s NAACP chapter. She also works as a special education teacher for RPS. She said the adjustment to the Gabriel Scholars Program was disheartening seeing as many students in the area cannot afford college.
“It’s a remembrance of what their family put in to build this very school,” Norfleet said. “I feel like it’s making it harder for students of color to attend college.”
NAACP chapter president Ashley Brown said the change was reflective of VCU’s willingness to comply with pressure from the state or federal government. She harkened on the university’s 2024 decision to cancel a racial literacy core curriculum requirement that students and faculty spent years developing.
“It’s almost like VCU just gave in very easily,” Brown said. “In other universities, while they have the same pressures, they did not give in how VCU did.”
