Trump executive order to impact Notre Dame DEI initiatives

President Trump’s recent executive order, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity”, may end the University of Notre Dame’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming.

The directive writes that “institutions of higher education have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.’”

The order, signed on Trump’s second day in office, terminates illegal discrimination and diversity promotion in federal agencies as well as in all federally funded educational institutions. Trump’s administration unveiled “a plan of specific steps or measures to deter DEI (whether specifically denominated ‘DEI’ or otherwise) programs or principles that constitute illegal discrimination or preferences” in the private sector. The programs cannot be merely renamed or repackaged.

Each federal agency will identify up to nine potential civil compliance investigations into publicly traded corporations, non-profits, state and local bar and medical associations, or institutions of higher education with endowments over 1 billion dollars—this includes Notre Dame, which boasts an estimated 20.1 billion dollar endowment.

Notre Dame’s large endowment is not the only reason it may face the impact of Trump’s executive order. Notre Dame doubled-down on creating DEI initiatives and offices in 2023 and 2024, behaving contrary to national trends. 

The university has undertaken recent rapid DEI expansion, although DEI has been in decline at other colleges and universities. With state legislatures proposing more than 85 bills to end DEI in institutions of higher learning, and 14 becoming law, other universities have already taken steps to decrease diversity focuses.

Nearly 50 universities have closed their DEI offices since 2023, but Notre Dame has grown dramatically, with the Center of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) newly opened in 2023. 

As the Rover had previously reported, the Center for DEI fit into the larger Strategic Framework which claimed to “enhance initiatives and practices that contribute to diversity, equity, and inclusion at Notre Dame.” It was funded by a 10 million dollar gift from management-consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

At Notre Dame, the Student Affairs Office expanded in the 2024–2025 academic year to include a Diversity and Engagement unit, which houses the Center for DEI, the Multicultural Student Programs and Services, the Gender Relations Center, and the Office of Student Enrichment. 

It is unclear if Notre Dame’s DEI initiatives will continue under the executive order and potential future investigations. The Division of Student Affairs declined to comment on the order and its implications for Notre Dame.

Trump’s recent order may also impact the Notre Dame Admissions Office. The executive order designates that all educational institutions that receive federal funds must comply with the 2023 Supreme Court ruling, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College which ended affirmative action in college admissions.

Within 120 days of the order, the university is set to receive guidance from the Attorney General Pam Bondi and nominated Secretary of Education Linda McMahon regarding compliance with the Students for Fair Admissions ruling.

The president has already taken steps to implement his order. All employees in any of the now-defunct federal diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility offices were immediately placed on administrative leave. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt “gladly confirmed” the news via a post on X last week.

President Trump stated that “Americans deserve a government committed to serving every person with equal dignity and respect, and to expending precious taxpayer resources only on making America great,” in a related executive order, “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing,” signed on Inauguration Day. 

Professor of political science Daniel Philpott has previously articulated the conflict between DEI and Notre Dame’s Catholic character. In response to the DEI center’s creation, he told the Rover, “I worry that the DEI language links us to approaches that are predominant today in public law and the policies of corporations, universities, and other institutions, but which are secular and not rooted in the Church’s theology, divine reality, moral doctrine, and teaching about the human person.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church similarly highlights that each individual is born with equal dignity and respect—the individual is not secondary to a larger idea of diversity or inclusion. It states in Paragraph 356, “Being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone.”

Catalina Scheider Galiñanes is a senior with double majors in economics and political science and a minor in constitutional studies from the Washington, D.C. area. She is available to discuss traditionalism and tariff trade policy at cscheid2@nd.edu

Photo Credit: Notre Dame Instagram

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