The White House seeks to eliminate funding for the TRiO program in its 2026 budget proposal in response to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies, but that’s only part of the bigger picture – the Trump administration wishes to corrupt the foundational goals of academia.
The Department of Education’s TRiO programs serve underprivileged individuals throughout the country, expanding access to education for first-generation students, low-income students, students with disabilities and more. Upward Bound Math and Sciences at Murray State, which assists high school students in western Kentucky and southern Illinois seeking a higher education in STEM fields, is one of potentially many TRiO programs facing cancellation.
Upward Bound Math and Sciences had its grant application denied this year, and is surviving on leftover funds from last year.
In a recent Murray State News article, Audrey Neal, TRiO Talent Search director, cites a line in the grant application about continuing DEI training to Upward Bound employees as the reason for the rejection. DEI training does not align with the current priorities of the Department of Education, and so that one line was enough justification to reject the grant.
TRiO is not the sole victim of anti-DEI sentiment. In June 2023, affirmative action, an effort to eliminate discrimination in college admissions and employment, was effectively put to an end by the Republican majority Supreme Court in cases Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina.
Now, college admissions are supposed to be evaluated based entirely on merit. These anti-DEI policies, promised by the Trump administration to remove all discrimination in college admissions, don’t quite live up to their sales pitch.
Removing TRiO could prove to have major consequences for the accessibility of higher education to underprivileged students. Getting into college is no easy matter for the individuals that TRiO serves.
College is expensive, and low-income students struggle to afford application fees, tuition, housing, dining and other expenses. Colleges are proven to favor legacy students, or students who have parents with degrees. This makes it harder for first-generation students to access college. Students with disabilities are often rejected from college so that universities don’t have to worry about providing accommodations.
The discontinuation of TRiO would end the assistance, limiting their access to higher education.
The reality of anti-DEI policies that eliminate TRiO programs and affirmative action is that access to education is right back to what it was before – unfair and exclusionary. Low-income students lose help that can make the difference between being able to afford college and not, first-generation students can be more easily pushed aside in favor of legacy students, and students with disabilities can be ignored to avoid accommodations. With the removal of affirmative action, colleges can no longer counteract racial biases in exams or implicit sexism without violating a ruling from the Supreme Court itself. This has led to a dip in Black and female student enrollment in several universities.
In a way, anti-DEI has created another kind of affirmative action, one that favors wealthy white men. With DEI policies making it easier for anyone of any background to get into college, the removal of them makes it harder for everyone except wealthy students, legacy students, white students and male students to get an education.
It is no coincidence that conservative politicians push for policies that swing access to higher education in favor of wealthy white men. The elimination of DEI and accessibility will directly affect how college students vote – a demographic Republicans sorely lack. College students lean liberal, 55% of individuals with a bachelor’s degree identify as Democrats, in comparison to 42% who identify as Republicans. The gap widens amongst postgraduate students, where 61% identify as Democrats while only 37% are Republicans. Meanwhile, individuals without a college degree lean Republican by about 6%.
So, what’s the end game? The removal of DEI policies leads to college admissions favoring wealthy white men, a predominantly Republican demographic. More Republican students in higher education leads to conservative viewpoints becoming more commonplace on otherwise left-leaning college campuses. The result of anti-DEI in educational spaces is an increase in the number of Republican college graduates, because of reduced access for other demographics.
In the pursuit of changing the political beliefs of the largely Democratic group that is college students, the Trump administration has left countless students to the wayside. This includes the white male students who seem to tremendously gain from anti-DEI. Diversity in academia is a benefit for everyone. Having numerous perspectives on topics benefits students by diminishing echo chambers, allowing for students and professors to have more productive conversations, perform more thorough research and make more substantiated opinions.
DEI policies and TRiO were not created to discriminate against white men. They were created to further the fundamental goal of academia – the betterment of society. Every student benefits from DEI, and every student loses without it. Here at Murray State, we lose Upward Bound. Across America, we lose the quality of our education – all so a political party can increase its voting turnout in the next election. While the collapse of academia isn’t going to happen overnight because of anti-DEI, the Republican Party and Trump’s administration have set a dangerous ploy into motion. Always remember why we benefit from DEI, because if we allow the eradication of these policies to continue, no one wins.
