A mandate from the U.S. Department of Education is threatening Mississippi universities with the loss of federal funds if race is not excluded from all admissions, hiring, policies and practices.

In a Dear Colleague sent to all educational institutions receiving federal funding, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor said the DOE will assess universities’ compliance over two weeks beginning Feb. 28. If policies and practices do not comply with the department’s directive, universities like Mississippi State and Mississippi University for Women risk losing federal funding.

“The department will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this nation’s educational institutions,” the letter read. “The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent.”

The letter specifically demands all educational institutions receiving federal funds “cease illegal use of race” in admissions, hiring, compensation, promotion, scholarships, prizes, sanctions and discipline.

“Schools, including elementary, middle and high schools, may no longer make decisions or operate programs based on race or race stereotypes in any of these categories or they risk losing access to federal funds,” a DOE press release said.

In a response to the letter published Wednesday, MSU Vice President for Strategic Communications and Director of Public Affairs Sid Salter said the university will assess its compliance with the administration’s “new interpretations.”

“While some changes and adjustments will be required, our people – our students, faculty and staff – will remain our top priority as we work together through any needed changes and adjustments required by those new federal directives,” Salter wrote in the statement.

Mississippi University for Women Communications Director Tyler Wheat confirmed the university received the letter but directed all questions to the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning.

“We are aware of the Feb. 14 letter from the Department of Education and are working with the public universities to address the directives of the letter,” IHL Director of Communications John Sewell said in the statement.

Federal funding for public postsecondary institutions in Mississippi averages about $3,767 per student, according to an Education Data Initiative report last updated Feb. 8.

For research and sponsored projects, the IHL system received a little more than $535 million in federal funding in 2022-2023.

Mississippi State received $252.18 million in federal funding for research, and Mississippi University for Women received $490,000 for research the same year.

Fear and anxiety on campus

With uncertainty about what programming could be affected by a loss of funding, one MSU professor who agreed to speak under the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, said faculty on campus are concerned about what could happen next.

“On the faculty side, there is a lot of fear and anxiety because the administrators don’t even know what’s coming around the bend,” he said. “You’ve got a lot of people that are sitting around and are hoping that administrators are going to look out for them.”

The professor said faculty members have been told administration is working to ensure the university can function as normal, but there will be a response made to political demands.

While the professor does not think he would be directly affected if federal funding were cut, he said the broader impact on the university could cause issues beyond just faculty and administration.

“I think that people unfamiliar with the economics of the university need to understand that if you truly started pulling federal funding away from this university, it would cease to exist,” he said. “A large part of what we do comes from grant funding. What actually makes this university work is not tuition dollars, but I can guarantee you, if federal funding dries up, tuition will go up. I don’t think parents of students are going to be any too happy about that.”

Natalie Staggers, a senior communications major at Mississippi State, said she and classmates have been attempting to interview different department heads for a class project focused on misconceptions about what diversity, equity and inclusion efforts entail.

With department heads declining to speak with the team for the project, Staggers said it seems like some faculty and administration members are scared to discuss anything DEI-related in the current political climate.

“It seems like something that those people should be educated on and willing to at least discuss, especially since it’s not being published anywhere,” Staggers told The Dispatch. “… Especially with the executive order coming down from the Department of Education, it’s definitely something that a lot of people are wary about and wouldn’t want to potentially put their job at risk.”

As a student, Staggers said it feels wrong for the federal government to leverage funding in exchange for the end of established programs.

“It feels like something that if it were happening outside of America, we would be looking at that as an example of why we live in America and why this is a better place to live than places where stuff like that happens,” she said. “I do think that it’s concerning, and I think that it’s something that people should be worried about, and it’s something that people should be educating themselves on, and I think that a lot of people aren’t doing that.”

McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.