The University of Michigan will close its diversity, equity and inclusion offices and end its use of diversity statements across the university as a direct response to policy changes from the Trump administration, its president, Santa Ono, announced on Thursday. 

In an email sent to the university community, Ono and other top campus administrators announced sweeping changes to the university’s approach to its diversity programs. In addition to closing its campus DEI office and another one at Michigan Medicine, the university will discontinue its “DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan,” a university-wide initiative implemented in 2023 to increase DEI trainings and programs on campus. 

“These decisions have not been made lightly. We recognize the changes are significant and will be challenging for many of us, especially those whose lives and careers have been enriched by and dedicated to programs that are now pivoting,” Ono wrote in an email co-authored by Michigan’s provost, executive vice president for medical affairs and chief financial officer.

The university began reassessing its DEI work late last year. President Donald Trump’s early actions targeting the tenets of DEI — an ideology described as “discriminatory” by the Department of Education — played a major role in the decision to do away with DEI programming.

“Thoughtful discussion unfolded throughout the early months of the new presidential administration, when the rapid succession of executive orders and federal guidance — including several that broadly criticized DEI programs — began to reshape higher education,” Ono wrote. He said the actions from Michigan are “in alignment with many of our peers at public and private institutions,” as universities have begun to accede to Trump’s demands in an effort to avoid the loss of federal funding or other consequences. 

DEI offices have proliferated at American universities in recent years as a way to combat racism and make students from minority communities feel more welcome on campus. But following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, as antisemitism has risen in America, DEI offices have faced scrutiny by some in the Jewish community for failing to include Jewish students in their remit — and, in some cases, actively espousing antisemitic beliefs.

“Some in our campus community have voiced frustration that they did not feel included in DEI initiatives and that the programming fell short in fostering connections among diverse groups,” Ono wrote in Thursday’s letter.

More than 240 employees at Michigan’s flagship Ann Arbor campus have positions with the words “diversity,” “equity” or “inclusion” in them, The New York Times reported in December. A Michigan spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment about whether these staff members are still employed at the university. 

Jordan Acker, a member of the university’s Board of Regents, praised the move as a way to do away with a bloated bureaucracy that he said has done little to actually increase diversity on campus.

“The new policy announced by the University of Michigan today is fundamentally about ensuring that our diversity efforts work better,” Acker told Jewish Insider. “Over the past several years, the university has spent $250 million on diversity efforts, but yet the population of minority students at UM has grown little — and a disproportionate amount we’ve devoted to these efforts have gone into administrative overhead, not outreach to students.”

The university said it will now redouble its commitment to supporting students through scholarships, mental health care and financial aid.