This story was originally published by TheStatehouseFile.com
By Anna Cecil
TheStatehouseFile.com
February 21, 2025
Mascots, admissions advisors, and university and college presidents swarmed the second floor of the Indiana Statehouse on Wednesday afternoon at the Independent Colleges of Indiana’s Day at the Statehouse.
While they networked with each other and potential students, another topic loomed over the event—a letter every institution in the nation received Friday from the United States Department of Education.
The letter’s main point was a reaffirmation of the nondiscrimination policies every public and federally funded school must adhere to. These types of institutions were reminded not to use race preferences and stereotypes in “admissions, financial aid, hiring, training, and other institutional programming.”
If schools do not stop these activities, the letter warns that their federal funding will cease.
All colleges and universities at the Independent Colleges of Indiana’s Day at the Statehouse were considered private, but this does not mean the Department of Education’s letter does not pose a threat to them.
Private schools receive federal funding in the form of student financial aid, work-study programs, federal partnerships, veteran benefits and grants.
Paul Sniegowski, president of Earlham College, said that as of right now, it is too early to tell how the letter will impact his school, but he and his colleagues are watching the issue closely.
“We are watching with interest,” he said. “The letter itself says it does not have the force of law, so we really don’t know.”
Although Sniegowski is unsure what the future holds, he acknowledged the role federal aid plays at Earlham and colleges like it.
“The federal government helps small colleges, private colleges, in a lot of important ways,” he said. “What we all hope is that we don’t get put in a position where we’re in a moral dilemma between what we think is right for our campus in terms of diversity and what we know is right in terms of taking care of our students.”
Deb Lawrence, Marion University’s senior vice president for strategic partnerships and general counsel, said that although Marion does not have an office for DEI (diversity, equity, inclusion), it does have scholarships from donors who might be looking to support a student from a certain demographic.
“It’s not a one-criteria thing, which allows us to award it to the student that most needs it,” she said. “But we’re going to go through and make sure that we’re compliant.”
The school’s website said it has a Unity Center that welcomes all types of students and provides them with support. The center, which houses several multicultural groups, is not under attack in the letter, from Lawrence’s interpretation, but she said the organizations may need to be evaluated.
“We may want to say, ‘Hey, let’s think about what you’re calling yourself or how you’re promoting yourself because it might not seem like everyone’s invited,’” Lawrence said.
Dr. Tanuja Singh, University of Indianapolis’ president, reiterated what TheStatehouseFile.com heard from several schools—many are still unsure of exactly how the letter will impact them.
Singh noted that Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education, who wrote the letter, continuously referred to the U.S. Supreme Court case Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
She said this case is very narrow, so it is unclear how it will apply to other schools.
“The letter seems pretty encompassing,” she said. “There is a lot of uncertainty. … At this time, we’re still trying to assess how it translates into providing the kinds of services and support we provide.”
Singh added that her campus hosts several diverse groups, including many international students, students from across the nation and LGBTQ+ groups.
“These organizations, obviously, are very intimately connected to the life of the university,” she said. “We have provided some very specific guidelines to students. … We know exactly what their rights are and at the same time what support we can provide them.”
Although she doesn’t know how the DOE letter will impact them, Singh emphasized a student-first mindset at the University of Indianapolis.
“Our goal, ultimately, is to make our students successful,” Singh said. “To the extent we can provide them the resources, the facilities and the support—we do that so that they’ll be successful.”
Anna Cecil is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
