As President Donald Trump pursues a policy of abolishing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, universities, companies, and charities in the U.S. are reforming their scholarship systems based on race, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 5th.
According to data from the National Scholarship Providers Association (NSPA), the total amount of scholarships in the U.S. based on race, ethnicity, or gender amounted to $56 million as of June, a 25% decrease from March 2023.
The NSPA statistics do not compile all scholarships in the U.S., which amount to trillions of dollars a year, but they serve as an indicator of recent reforms to the scholarship system, the newspaper explained.
Since the Trump administration took office, the U.S. Department of Education has notified universities that federal funding may be cut off if they use race as a criterion for financial support for school members. In fact, the University of Michigan alumni association suspended its LEAD scholarship program in March to comply with federal guidelines.
This scholarship program, which began in 2008, had been providing scholarships to black, Native American, and Latino students. Illinois State University, Northwestern University, Loyola University in Chicago, and the University of Chicago have also withdrawn their race-based scholarship programs or suspended their operations for internal evaluation.
The Gates Foundation also removed race or ethnicity from its scholarship criteria in April and made it possible for all students who are eligible for the federal government scholarship, the Pell Grant, to apply for scholarships.
This was after a petition was filed with the IRS asking the Gates Foundation to review its tax-exempt status, claiming that it discriminates against white students.
“We are seeing scholarship providers reorganize their programs because of concerns about litigation,” said Jackie Bright, president of the NSPA.