(The Center Square) – Cornell University is evaluating President Donald Trump’s executive order concerning the termination of diversity, equity and inclusion, while New York University provided no comment; both universities train and educate future medical professionals.
“University leadership continues to evaluate how new executive orders affect our community,” a Cornell spokesman told The Center Square when asked what the school’s response to Trump’s executive order ending federal funding to universities with DEI and DEIA programs and if it or its medical school will be ending its DEI and transgender initiatives.
“As more concrete information becomes available, we will provide guidance on how the executive orders and other directives may impact our programs and community members,” the Cornell spokesman said.
When reached for comment, New York University Grossman School of Medicine media contact Arielle Sklar told The Center Square, “we appreciate you reaching out. We have no comment.”
Trump’s Jan. 20 order entitled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” states that “all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear,” must be terminated.
Weill Cornell Medicine Medical College states its commitment to diversity and inclusion on its website, while also stating that Cornell is an “affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.”
Listed on NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s website is the Institute for Excellence in Health Equity and a DEI in Research division, the latter of which possess a guiding pillar of “recruiting and retaining a diverse cadre of students, faculty, and staff empowered to further our DEI mission.”
Across the states, universities with schools of medicine are evaluating Trump’s executive order and how it will affect them, as The Center Square previously reported.
University of Michigan spokeswoman Kay Jarvis previously told The Center Square that U-M “is carefully reviewing all of the executive orders to understand their implications on the institution and students.”
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill media relations previously told TCS “we are monitoring all new executive orders and directives to determine the impact on our work and our community.”
Stett Holbrook of the University of California Office of the President strategic communications previously told The Center Square that the only information UC has is that the school “is evaluating recent executive orders issued by President Trump and the subsequent agency guidance to understand their potential impact on our communities.”
University of Washington spokesman Victor Balta previously told The Center Square that UW is “reviewing the executive order to determine what direct impact it may have on the UW.”
However, speaking on behalf of UW School of Medicine, health sciences director of media relations Susan Gregg said that UW Medicine is “continuing to provide [its] full spectrum of services” – which evidently includes the Office of Healthcare Equity – and is “in compliance” with state and federal law.
Johns Hopkins University and Case Western Reserve previously declined to comment on the subject of Trump’s executive order, while Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Duke, Yale, Penn, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, Boston University, Emory University, and Mayo Clinic School of Medicine have not yet responded to repeated requests for comment.
