Law Schools Are Dropping ‘Diversity’ From Their DEI Branding

Some top US law schools have dropped mentions of diversity from their websites as academic centers face a compliance deadline to ensure continued federal funding.

Law schools including Cornell Law School, Vanderbilt Law School, and the University of Virginia School of Law have axed the word “diversity” from their community-focused webpages. The Antonin Scalia Law School took down its diversity page entirely. It’s unclear the exact date these changes were implemented.

“The law is grounded in the pursuit of truth and justice, and I bring with me a longstanding commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Antonin Scalia Law dean Ken Randall said on the now deleted webpage.

The changes come as schools, businesses and nonprofits look for ways to adapt to heightened scrutiny of their diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Law schools are required to adhere to the American Bar Association’s DEI standards by its accrediting body.

Schools are facing a Feb. 28 deadline to ensure their DEI policies, initiatives and programs do not violate federal law or risk their federal funding, according to a Feb. 14 letter from Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for Civil Rights at the Education Department. The letter is a continuation of the Trump administration’s DEI crackdown. Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders aimed at limiting race- and gender-based diversity programming across the federal government and declaring investigations into DEI initiatives at bar associations and universities.

The letter also cautioned that schools cannot “circumvent prohibitions on the use of race by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such ends.”

Vanderbilt declined to comment. The other schools mentioned did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Vanderbilt Law changed its “Office of Diversity, Equity, and Community” to the “Office of Culture & Community” this month, according to the archival site the Wayback Machine. The school also changed the title of its DEI director to “Director of Culture & Community.” Cornell Law made a change from “Diversity and Inclusion” to “Equity, Inclusion and Belonging” sometime between August and September 2024, according to records viewed on the Wayback Machine. UVA Law changed its “Committee on Diversity, Equity and Belonging” to “Community Engagement and Equity.” The exact timing of these changes are unclear, but they are likely to have been implemented sometime between September 2024 and this month.

Law schools are mandated to commit to DEI principles by a council within the American Bar Association that has accreditation power over law schools. The ABA’s diversity standard is under review and is set to undergo another vote Friday by the ABA’s council on legal education to finalize the rule’s language.

Anti-DEI critics, many of whom are Trump allies, were encouraged by the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision to wage legal attacks against DEI initiatives in the private and public sector alike. Entities including law firms and bar organizations have changed their definitions of diversity and tweaked diversity programming in response to the lawsuits and complaints.