As Atlanta universities scramble to adhere to Trump directives ending DEI programs, many students and staff feel abandoned

Hours before Emory University Interim President Leah Ward Sears announced that Atlanta’s premier private university would be dismantling its diversity, equity, and inclusion office, she was in a meeting with professor Noëlle McAfee.

“Toward the very end of the meeting,” McAfee recalls, “[Sears] said, ‘I want you to know that in the next hour, an announcement is going to go out that we are closing all the DEI programs.’”

After that meeting, McAfee, a philosophy professor, chair of the Faculty Council, and president of the University Senate, immediately headed to teach a class. “At the very end of class,” she says, “I said [to students], ‘You’re about to turn on your phones . . . and see some news from the president.’ One student came up to me, and he said, ‘I was going to talk to you about accommodations for my disabilities, but I guess that doesn’t matter anymore.’” Even though the policy changes didn’t modify disability accommodations, McAfee says many of her students took the news as a sign that moving forward, their university would no longer prioritize such things.

Last September, Emory announced that it would comply with President Donald Trump’s directives to higher-education institutions to end programs dedicated to DEI. His administration’s attack on such initiatives began almost immediately after Trump began his second term; on January 21, 2025, he signed an executive order reversing the federal government’s position on affirmative action and other diversity-focused programs and directing federal agencies to terminate contacts with any groups continuing them.

A month later, the Department of Education issued its now-infamous “Dear Colleague” letter, which threatened to slash federal funding for any colleges or universities that failed to comply with the administration’s order. The letter read, in part, “The Department will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this Nation’s educational institutions.”

It’s still not clear whether this pressure campaign on higher education is legal; several lawsuits are currently working through the courts alleging they violate constitutional protections. Nevertheless, Emory University, along with several other Atlanta universities, has largely opted for compliance. In the past year, universities across Atlanta have stripped references to DEI from their websites, shut down offices that led diversity efforts, and removed many identity-specific programs.

According to students and faculty from two metro-area universities, the overall impact has been a systematic chipping away at the resources and programs that support students from minority groups on campus—which, for many of them, were a major draw to the university in the first place.

Photograph by Lynsey Weatherspoon

“It feels like we’ve pretty much been told, ‘We don’t want you here. We don’t need you here,’” says Amy West, a senior at Kennesaw State University (KSU) and communications director for the Kennesaw Pride Alliance. “It feels like we’ve been kicked to the curb.”

After Sears’s announcement, Emory’s changes were swift: Among other overhauls, the university’s Black Women’s Initiative and Black Male Initiative were rebranded to remove race, and the Emory Writing Center scrubbed all references to DEI on its website, including a statement of its commitment to anti-racism, equity, and inclusion. Additionally, based on an analysis of a range of current open faculty positions, it appears university departments have stopped calling for diversity statements in hiring.

In her message, Sears acknowledged the positive impacts of DEI in education, noting that she herself is “someone who reaped the benefits of the needs these programs were meant to address,” but told the university community that, frankly, they couldn’t risk the funding hit. “We live in a time of changing expectations and new requirements,” she wrote. “The standards are clear, and we must act accordingly.”

Students don’t see it so simply.

“President Sears says that cutting the programs doesn’t question what’s in our DNA and our values,” says Elizabeth Brubaker, an Emory University senior and student government leader. “But I think the fact that we’re not able to stand up for those values kind of shows where our chips lie. And I’m disappointed in that.”

Brubaker says Emory’s leadership has so far declined to clarify how the school defines DEI, what programs have been affected, and whether more resources will be removed. Emory University officials declined to be interviewed about the status of DEI programs on campus, and university spokesperson Laura Diamond did not directly answer questions about how the school defines DEI or what laws led Emory to make the changes, instead citing Sears’s September 3 announcement. Diamond said identity-based centers that exist on campus today, including the Center for Women, the Emory Black Student Union, and the Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Life, would remain.

While they don’t fear retaliation themselves, some students feel their professors have been muzzled, preventing them from speaking out in support of the once-championed DEI practices, and fear that the goalposts set by federal mandates will continue to shift. “You’re toeing a line that you can’t see,” says Asmita Lehther, Emory senior and student government member.

Meanwhile, public universities—which are likewise beholden to anti-DEI policies passed in the past few years by the University System of Georgia’s Board of Regents—have also moved to end diversity-focused programs and groups. In February, Georgia Tech dismantled its LGBTQIA+ Resource Group, the Women’s Resource Center, and a center called Black Culture, Innovation, and Technology.

In May, over intense opposition from many faculty and students, KSU administrators ended the university’s Black Studies major, citing low enrollment, and announced plans to “restructure” six of the university’s identity-based centers. The Women’s Resource Center reopened as the Bridge and Belong Hub; the LGBTQ Resource Center is now the Pathways to Success Hub; and the Global Village, which served as a group for international students, became the Connected Campus and Trailblazers Hub, redirecting its support to out-of-state and other “nontraditional” students.

Students were told that any identity-specific programs would have to be run—and funded—by them.

Speaking with Atlanta on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal from university administrators, one KSU faculty member says the dismantling of “vital” resource centers has raised concerns about students’ and staff members’ mental health. “Morale is at an all-time low, and principled leadership is sorely needed,” the faculty member says. Tammy DeMel, assistant vice president of KSU’s communications office, did not return multiple requests to interview university leadership, or provide comment.

Sebastian Harriman, another KSU senior involved in Kennesaw Pride Alliance, says he believes that not having a dedicated resource for LGBTQ+ students sends an ominous message: “[It] sets a precedent that the school doesn’t want students like us around.”

For their part, university administrators say they can’t afford to defy the Trump administration’s attack on DEI.

Atlanta’s major universities receive millions of dollars in federal funding every year, primarily used to fund student aid or bankroll research grants. In 2024, Emory reported receiving more than $488 million from the National Institutes of Health to fund research. 

During his annual institute address in September, Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera warned his staff that failure to comply with federal guidelines could further jeopardize crucial federal funding for the school, which has already been adversely affected by cuts to federal grant agencies. Between January and June 2025, Cabrera noted, the Trump administration cancelled 46 of the school’s research projects that were worth a combined $15 million.

Photograph by Lynsey Weatherspoon

“We need to be extremely alert to changing rules and committed to full compliance,” he said. “I can’t stress enough how much we all must do to do our part to minimize risk, to stay vigilant, to understand our own accountability in these matters . . . Each of us needs to do our part to comply.”

McAfee, the Emory University professor, sees Emory’s quick acquiescence as a similar   attempt to avoid attracting the Trump administration’s ire and risking federal funding. “There are no laws calling for this,” she says. “It’s just capitulating rather than fighting.”

Even as university officials follow marching orders from Washington, many students and faculty are pushing back to protect the programs supporting minority groups on campus.

Last October, Emory student leaders organized a referendum for students regarding the university’s changes to DEI. More than 89 percent of participating students voted for full reinstatement of programs and initiatives that were culled; Brubaker says the university has yet to respond to the results.

After KSU’s LGBTQ Resource Center was rebranded, the Kennesaw Pride Alliance opened its own center this fall in the nearby First United Lutheran Church of Kennesaw. The new center has served as an ad hoc meeting space for some of the university’s now-shuttered groups, including the Hispanic/Latino Outreach and Leadership in Academics organization and the Women’s Resource Center. “Is it super organized? No,” says Kat Folk, First United Lutheran’s vicar. “But we all absolutely have each other’s back.”

It’s unclear if identity-based centers will make a comeback at KSU, should political tides turn. For now, dismantled websites offer remnants of what were once thriving corners of campus life.

“Sorry,” reads a message on the now-defunct page for the Women’s Resource Center, accompanied by the school’s mascot, Scrappy the Owl. “This page has fled the nest!”

This article appears in our February 2026 issue.

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