Prior to taking office, Donald Trump led a campaign that championed  “making America great again.” While many people embraced this idea with open arms, some of Trump’s promises set alarm bells blaring for others.

One of the biggest pillars of the Trump campaign was a promise to roll back the emphasis the Biden administration had placed on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the U.S.. The president began to fulfill his promise mere hours after taking office by signing an executive order entitled “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs And Preferencing.”

The order referred to DEI programs put in place by the Biden administration as “illegal and immoral discrimination programs” and promised to “coordinate the termination of” these programs by “review[ing] and revis[ing], as appropriate, all existing Federal employment practices, union contracts, and training policies or programs to comply with this order.” 

Though this is the first distinct act the Trump administration has made against DEI this term, it may not be the last.

As a private institution, Drake University is not feeling the full effect of this legislation just yet. However, proposed state legislation, such as HSB60, a study bill recently introduced into the Iowa State House of Representatives that would “prohibit… private institutions of higher education that participate in the Iowa tuition grant program from establishing diversity, equity, and inclusion offices,” has some schools, like DMACC, preemptively dismantling their DEI-affiliated programs. 

A letter from DMACC to students cited the potential legislation as reasoning for pausing their Diversity Commission and DEI Task Force programs. DMACC also suspended the use of training courses that include DEI elements until further notice.

At the time of publication, a search for DEI on DMACC’s website pulled up a 404 error message and a snapshot of the school’s mascot asking the site visitor to “bear with us.”

While DMACC is suspending DEI programming, Associate Provost for Campus Equity and Inclusion Terrance Pendleton is confident in Drake’s ability to persevere. 

“A lot of the work in this office over the last couple of weeks [has] been coordinating a response and figuring out paths that ensure we can continue this work,” Pendleton said. “Right now, on one side [I am] proceeding as usual, but the second side is figuring out how to institutionalize this work, to protect it against whatever kind of future attacks that might come our way.” 

Pendleton said that the attitude in the Office of Equity and Inclusion post-inauguration has predominantly been positive, focusing on the overall improvements DEI programs have brought to campus and how to keep those benefits alive in a political landscape against them.

“There’s a little bit of trepidation,” Pendleton said in reference to the atmosphere on campus following Trump’s inauguration. “But there’s also this willingness to not be idle… to resist and fight this and really stand down on what the values of this institution are, and to keep that in the back of our minds [as] we continue to proceed with some of this work.”

The president of the Coalition of Black Students, Ty Walls, echoed this sentiment. Walls said that for many students, sitting with these attacks on their identities is important, but acknowledged that continued rumination on such a difficult subject matter can often cause more harm than good.

“We don’t always have to sit down and have these hard conversations,” Walls said. “We have all this going on, but we can still focus on the good aspects. Now, more than ever, it’s time to celebrate and come together and show that we can still keep making progress.” 

This Black History Month, under Walls’s leadership, the organization has planned a variety of events that center joy and pride in one’s identity.  

“Everyone’s more welcome now more than ever, because we don’t need to divide,” Walls said. “We can have those conversations, and we will, but… pouring into ourselves and having fun [is important] as well.”

The sense of belonging Drake University seeks to foster is deeply entrenched in its systemic structure, Pendleton said. To people like Pendleton, it is this sentiment that prevails above all else. For him, the work he does is more than how it appears on paper. 

“As long as I’m in this role, this work will continue,” Pendleton promised. “Regardless of what Iowa legislation might pass, this work will continue in some shape or form, even if it has to take on a new name, even if it has to take on an altered appearance. This work is too important to just let it vanish.”