The University of Maine campus in Orono in 2019. The state’s flagship university has renamed its Office for Diversity and Inclusion as the Office for Community and Connections under federal pressure to eliminate DEI programs. Gabe Souza/Portland Press Herald

At least five Maine colleges and universities have opted to rename their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in recent months as part of a national trend that follows a Trump administration crackdown on DEI-related programming in education.

The changes span public and private institutions, from the University of Maine to Colby College, as schools have opted instead for words like “community” and “belonging.”

But what’s not clear is whether the offices are changing what they do. None agreed to an interview about the changes, and most schools that still have DEI language on their websites declined to talk about whether they plan to make the change in the future.

Across the country, diversity offices have quietly changed their names or shuttered over the past several years — a shift that ramped up once President Donald Trump retook office and signed an executive order to end what he has called wasteful and immoral government DEI programs.

More than 30 public flagship universities have altered their diversity programs in some way: 14 have closed entirely, and 15 have been renamed or restructured, according to reporting from POLITICO.

“Many universities have engaged in what scholars call anticipatory obedience, which is to eliminate still-lawful policies and practices I think out of the very misguided hope that somehow it will keep the Trump administration off their back,” said Johnathan Feingold, a Boston University School of Law professor who studies antidiscrimination law. “And I think it does reflect that the commitments we’ve seen to diversity, equity and inclusions have always been somewhat shallow on universities.”

ADMINISTRATIVE GUIDANCE

After the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to every state education department giving them 14 days to remove any DEI programming in schools, colleges around the country scrambled to scrub related words from their websites, fearing the loss of federal funding.

The letter argues that any educational program that treats people differently based on race — including scholarships, financial aid, administrative support, housing and graduation ceremonies — constitutes discrimination.

“Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon ‘systemic and structural racism’ and advanced discriminatory policies and practices,” it reads. “Proponents of these discriminatory practices have attempted to further justify them — particularly during the last four years — under the banner of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (‘DEI’), smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming and discipline.”

Three different federal judges have blocked the Trump administration’s efforts to halt funding because of DEI policies and many states, including Maine’s education department, refused to sign a letter of compliance. But by then, many of Maine’s higher education institutions, including its largest university, had already made the change.

‘COMMUNITY AND CONNECTIONS’

University of Maine administrators announced on March 5 that its Office for Diversity and Inclusion would now be the Office for Community and Connections. In the statement they describe that new office, the OCC, as a new initiative that will “broaden and integrate” services for students at UMaine and the University of Maine at Machias.

“OCC builds upon the work of its predecessor, UMaine’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI), expanding its focus on fostering our students’ personal growth and development and promoting our sense of community, connectedness and mutual respect,” the letter reads. “With an enhanced mission and vision, OCC will extend ODI’s reach and create more opportunities for collaboration and service.”

The office’s director did not respond to an interview request, and a university spokesperson declined to answer specific questions about the changes.

The university’s student newspaper, The Maine Campus, reported that President Joan Ferrini-Mundy addressed the issue at a student luncheon following her State of the University address on March 6, where she said university leaders across the country were figuring out how to react to the “Dear Colleague” letter.

“Part of the issue is doing two things at the same time: Staying very focused on … how we are available to support our students in the ways that we have been without changing that, and maybe expanding that,” Ferrini-Mundy said, according to The Campus. “But at the same time, really looking at risk in an uncertain moment.”

The University of Maine at Augusta, the University of New England and St. Joseph’s College all renamed offices or committees. UMA and UNE both attributed that decision to aligning the name more accurately with the program’s work. Colby College has removed “for Student Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion” from the description of it’s Pugh Center. Husson University is ending a certificate program in DEI it previously offered, citing low enrollment.

Feingold, the BU law professor, said that since college DEI programs aren’t illegal, schools that choose to scrub that language voluntarily could be sending a message to their students and educational community about their values. And, he said, there’s no reason to believe removing disfavored language will do anything to help colleges avoid being targeted by the administration.

“There are many costs to failing to just hold one’s ground, particularly considering that pretty much everything the Trump administration is going after under the umbrella of equity, diversity and inclusion is lawful,” he said.

SOME DEI PROGRAMS REMAIN

Feingold said he understands the calculation some schools might make: that in a hostile political environment, they need to change certain names so they can keep doing the work they want to do internally without federal scrutiny. But there’s no guarantee of that, he said.

“In this moment, in which the Trump administration has made it very clear its desire to wholly take over education in the United States, I think that strategically it’s misguided to think that one can somehow avoid having to fight the Trump administration and maintain one’s autonomy and independence simply by scrubbing disfavored language,” he said.

Some higher education institutions in Maine appear to be retaining their DEI offices and committees, although most declined to say whether there are plans to change them in the future.

For now, the University of Southern Maine is still home to the Office of Equity, Inclusion, and Community Impact. Staff at USM directed questions about the future of the office to a spokesperson for the University of Maine System, who declined “speculation on what actions may occur in the future.”

Southern Maine Community College in South Portland still has two groups, the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Diversity Programming Committee, which SMCC President Kristen Miller said the college is not planning to change. “In light of the evolving and complex legal landscape, SMCC has not altered the name or scope of its DEI committees,” she said. 

The school later announced that Dr. Idella Glenn, the vice president of that office, will be retiring this summer, and the office will be restructured – the exact details of which haven’t been announced.

And at Bowdoin College in Brunswick and Bates College in Lewiston, their offices of Inclusion and Diversity, and Equity and Inclusion, respectively, remain. Directors of each of those offices declined to comment.

Feingold said its unclear if colleges are simply changing the names of their offices or substantively altering what they do. But even if the changes are just in name only, he said, that’s a problem too.

“When universities speak, they have their own free speech rights,” Feingold said. “The fact that universities are being coerced to alter the way they are talking to the world, that itself is a serious First Amendment concern, to the extent the government is coercing public and private entities not to say the things they want to say, particularly when the things the institutions want to say are modest commitments to equity, diversity and inclusion.”

Note: this story was updated on May 13 to clarify changes at Colby College and the University of Southern Maine.