Atlanta, GA-based Georgia Tech University has joined the list of institutions adapting to federal laws surrounding Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives nationwide.
On Feb. 26, 2025, the Georgia Tech Pride Alliance announced that the LGBTQIA+ Resource Center (LRC), the Women’s Resource Center, and the Black Culture, Innovation, and Technology Center would be dissolved and integrated into the Arts, Belonging, and Community Department, according to Rough Draft Atlanta.
“We’ve known this was a possibility for years,” GT Pride Alliance said on Instagram. “These centers are losing the ability to distinguish and market themselves as what they are — a resource for marginalized groups. Other DEI programs are already undergoing similar restructuring across campus, but it is unclear when those changes will be fully announced.”
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According to Georgia Tech, the Arts, Belonging, and Community Department is a division of the educational organization Student Engagement & Well-Being. Its goal is to “promote and sustain a sense of belonging and community for all students across all identities” through diverse strategies, including arts, activities, intercultural dialogue, social events, and student organizations.
GT Pride Alliance provided multiple reasons for the changes to DEI initiatives, including recent executive orders signed by President Donald Trump and a letter from the Department of Education outlining new civil rights guidance targeting DEI practices.
In the letter dated Feb. 14, 2025, Craig Trainor, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, described discrimination based on race, color, or national origin as “illegal and morally reprehensible.”
“In recent years, American educational institutions have discriminated against students on the basis of race, including white and Asian students, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds and low-income families,” the letter read. “These institutions’ embrace of pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and other forms of racial discrimination have emanated throughout every facet of academia.”
The Chronicle for Education reports that 252 college campuses across 36 states have changed their DEI initiatives since January 2023, when anti-DEI legislation began circulating.
“…Colleges, universities, and K-12 schools have routinely used race as a factor in admissions, financial aid, hiring, training, and other institutional programming,” Trainor added in the letter. “In a shameful echo of a darker period in this country’s history, many American schools and universities even encourage segregation by race at graduation ceremonies and in dormitories and other facilities.”
Trump previously considered dismantling the Department of Education, which Congress established during Jimmy Carter’s presidency in 1979, AFROTECH™ previously reported. However, following severe pushback from numerous parents and school districts nationwide, he decided against signing the executive order on March 6, 2025.
As of March 12, 2025, Trump has laid off 1,315 workers from the agency, which had 4,133 employees at the beginning of the year, per AFROTECH™. The removal figure does not include the 573 who accepted separation packages or the 63 probationary workers laid off in February.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the department’s workforce reduction will not affect student loans, Pell Grants, competitive grant-making, or funding for special needs students.
“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents and teachers,” McMahon said, as AFROTECH™ noted.
