In the weeks since President Donald Trump took office and put diversity, equity and inclusion programs in his administration’s crosshairs, Binghamton University has seen little impact to its existing infrastructure.

It is unclear if this will change with the release of new guidance from the Department of Education on Feb. 14, which advised universities that they had 14 days to cease taking race into account in admissions and “all other aspects of student life.” The letter was signed by Craig Trainor, the department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights.

“The Department will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this Nation’s educational institutions,” the letter read. “The law is clear: treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve nebulous goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice, or equity is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent.”

The letter referred to two landmark cases decided in 2023 that found race-conscious admissions unconstitutional. Filed by Students for Fair Admissions against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina in 2014, the cases accused affirmative action programs of Title VI violations.

A University spokesperson did not return a request for comment on how programming or the Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion will be affected.

The Education Department’s guidance follows earlier broadsides against diversity-based initiatives. On his second day in office, Trump signed an executive order entitled “Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” which directed, among other things, the attorney general and secretary of education to jointly provide legal guidance to all institutions receiving federal funds.

The order also targeted private companies and nonprofit organizations. It revoked a 1960s-era Equal Employment Opportunity executive order signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

“We are and will always be committed to the core values of the University — Unity, Identity, Excellence,” wrote Ryan Yarosh ‘02, MPA ‘09, the University’s senior director of media and public relations, last month.

Several universities have begun to pare back their DEI programming in response to federal guidance. The University of Pennsylvania scrubbed its Diversity and Inclusion website late last week, as did the University of Colorado. As of publication, BU’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion was unchanged.

“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,” Trainor’s 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.”

BU saw slight changes in its diversity statistics this fall following the rollback of affirmative action, with new enrollment of underrepresented students, which the University defines as “historically underrepresented groups in higher education,” dropping from 23 percent to around 19.6 percent.

After the Supreme Court ruling in 2023, University President Harvey Stenger said: “A campus that embraces, supports and respects diversity in all aspects produces well-informed and better-educated students with the broad perspectives necessary for success in the 21st century.”

“This approach will allow us to continue to attract and recruit a student body that is geographically diverse, and includes those from a range of socio-economic backgrounds with a wide range of lived experiences,” he added at the time.