American University is responding to President Donald Trump’s executive orders that may affect the University, including plans to carry out mass deportations, potentially dismantle the Education Department and limit the rights of transgender people.
In an email to the AU community Thursday afternoon, University President Jonathan Alger detailed several guidance documents and resources aimed at protecting students, the University’s research and Inclusive Excellence programs impacted by Trump’s actions.
“While answers may not always be immediately available, we are supporting our students, faculty, and staff and moving our educational and research mission forward as we address these matters,” Alger wrote.
Administrators, including the University’s Vice President and General Counsel Traevena Byrd, Vice Provost for Research and Innovation Diana Burley, Acting Provost and Chief Academic Officer Vicky Wilkins, Chief Financial Officer Bronté Burleigh-Jones and Vice President of University Police Services, Emergency Management and Transportation Phillip Morse, briefed the Faculty Senate on many of the guidance points at a meeting Wednesday.
“Everybody is kind of in panic mode,” Wilkins told the group after saying that Alger was fielding numerous calls from nearby university presidents.
Alger added in his email that the University is working with internal experts and higher education associations to assess legal and compliance requirements. The University launched a Federal Policy Updates website to provide information as it becomes available.
“I think we would all agree that this is one of the most tumultuous weeks we’ve seen in higher [education] in a long time,” Wilkins said during the meeting. “I know that within our community, it has created fear and uncertainty at a heightened level and really calls for us to think about how we’re going to protect our students, our staff, our faculty and each other.”
Guidance for immigration actions on campus
The University released guidance for the community if U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took action on campus, which could include carrying out deportations or asking people for their immigration status.
The guidance said AU will not consider or ask for immigration status in admissions or financial aid decisions. It also said the AU Police Department would not participate in joint immigration enforcement efforts, unless required by law.
Morse underlined in the Faculty Senate meeting that faculty should not impede law enforcement and let the University handle any situations that arise. If immigration action is taken on campus, faculty should call AUPD immediately, he said.
AUPD has liaisons with federal agencies that would alert University leaders if ICE wanted to come on campus, according to Morse.
Wilkins said to faculty senators AU would not comply with any ICE actions on its property without a proper warrant. A clinical program at Washington College of Law “can provide assistance to undocumented students as needed,” the guidance stated.
Wilkins and members of the Faculty Senate said that numerous professors expressed concerns about ICE exercising deportations at AU, which prompted the discussion.
“The police department here at AU is for your safety and we’re not patrolling or enforcing and stopping people for immigration status,” Morse said. “We’re here for safety and security, and that includes everybody.”
Protecting transgender students
Administrators said during the meeting that they are drafting guidance aimed at protecting transgender students. Trump, on Wednesday, signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports.
The White House said the order “upholds the promise of Title IX,” The Associated Press reported. It would penalize, and potentially strip schools that allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports of federal funding on the grounds of sex discrimination.
The University did not release details about such efforts in the email, but Wilkins said in the meeting that AU is “trying to work through our policies and where we are, [and] making sure we’re offering protection” to transgender community members.
Preserving research grants & Inclusive Excellence
Burley and Byrd shared guidance during the meeting for research projects and grants impacted by federal directives.
At the moment, the administrators said, all grant funding can continue, since federal judges in D.C. and Rhode Island placed temporary restraining orders on Trump’s federal grant freeze. AU’s Office of Sponsored Awards and Research Administration released a website shortly after Trump’s inauguration to provide near-daily updates on federal policy changes for grant-funded researchers.
The D.C. judge said a memo directing the federal government to halt funding for assistance and grant programs attempted to circumvent Congress’ power of the purse, NPR reported. The directive caused concerns in higher education because of its effect on research grants.
Some researchers at AU received “stop work” orders from agencies that issued their grants after the freeze, Byrd and Burley said. They said that while the freeze is not currently in place, researchers must receive a letter rescinding the stop work order before they can resume work.
Burley said the University is working to “ensure we have a continuity of employment for staff members and students who are supported under grants.”
Agencies that fund research grants, such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, are also reviewing grant programs to comply with Trump’s orders to eliminate federal support of diversity, equity and inclusion and “gender ideology,” Inside Higher Ed reported.
The agencies’ review includes a search for key terms like “female,” “historically” and “male-dominated,” as well as terms related to sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, according to Insider Higher Ed.
“We are working with teams across campus to determine the impacts on our inclusive excellence strategy and programs,” Alger wrote.
Byrd added during the meeting that the University is trying to comply with the law, but without overreacting or unnecessarily limiting institutional freedom.
She said the biggest thing University leaders and researchers can do is “making sure we practice good hygiene, that we’re saying things [in public-facing documents] that don’t sound like we’re being exclusive, that we stay true to our mission here and we stay focused on inclusion.”
Byrd said the University has faced legal attacks on Inclusive Excellence, AU’s DEI framework, in the past.
“We’ve been defending these claims already,” she said. “We have these things that we care about that advance diversity, equity and inclusion and we’re going to keep doing them and we’re going to make sure they’re open to everyone.”
This article was edited by Walker Whalen, Tyler Davis and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks and Olivia Citarella.
