Amid the recent barrage of executive orders targeting higher education institutions, I’ve been refreshing my email daily, waiting to hear from our university’s leadership about how or whether these changes will affect Trinity.
It’s not unheard of for our university’s leadership to send such an email. In June 2023, the Trinity University leadership team emailed all students in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, which prohibited affirmative action in college admissions.
“At Trinity, we will follow the Supreme Court’s guidance as prescribed. We will also uphold the core values of our university, a place where individuals come to learn, serve, and connect in a community diverse in its membership and deeply rooted in its commitments,” the email, signed by Vanessa Beasley, Megan Mustain, Eric Maloof and Gilbert Hinga, read in part.
Since Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, university leadership has yet to email students addressing executive orders targeting higher education. The orders — which included one that effectively put Trinity, along with 130 other institutions of undergraduate higher education, on a DEI watchlist — threaten everything from inclusivity programs to publicly-funded scientific research at colleges and universities.
The legality of these orders is still unclear, so I am not entirely surprised that the university has been slow to respond. Not responding is a strategic move, and one other universities have also taken, but it has left students, faculty and staff in limbo and uncertain of their rights at Trinity.
For one, the university has yet to reaffirm its commitment to transgender students amid an executive order declaring they don’t exist. The uncertain status of transgender students has left me, as president of PRIDE, Trinity’s LGBTQ+ student organization, utterly unable to respond to many of the questions members of my organization are asking me. Questions like, “Is the Transgender Inclusion Statement still Trinity policy?” and even “Can transgender students use the restroom of their choice?” don’t yet have clear answers.
As Trinitonian news reporter Kat McKinney reported this week, Trinity professors are already facing the consequences of research cuts, and some Trinity students have had their post-graduation plans fall through because of national changes in research funding. Trinity has no control over these research cuts, but it would be helpful to hear from a university that prides itself on research on how they plan to protect this value.
The uncertainty created by these executive orders has even led to self-censorship and concerns about free speech. Last month, the organizers of a panel discussion about Palestine canceled the event over concerns that Texas Executive Order 44 could deport international students who spoke about Palestine, and professors involved expressed concern about their rights to free speech.
I want to reiterate that the university simply has no authority over many of these issues. They are likely grappling with uncertainty just as much as the rest of the Trinity community is. What I hope they do, however, is acknowledge that uncertainty and explain to us what they do know.
While the Princeton president’s “Keep Calm and Carry On” approach certainly has its problems, I would appreciate a similar announcement from Trinity’s leadership team urging students, faculty and staff to continue as usual until the university announces any official changes. Beyond an email, I would love to see members of Trinity’s leadership hold a town hall meeting open to just the Trinity community or create some other forum for Q&A.
Those kinds of communication likely wouldn’t clear up all the uncertainty and confusion surrounding the effect of Trump’s executive orders on Trinity, but they are a starting point. If anything, they would reiterate that we are all living in uncertainty together — as a community — and that’s exactly the kind of reassurance we need right now.
