A new memo from the Trump administration may undercut universities’ efforts to pursue a diverse student body, the latest move in the president’s sweeping crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives roiling Chicago-area schools.
The directive, issued earlier this month, requires institutions to hand over race-based admissions data.
Though the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in 2023, universities can still legally use race-neutral strategies to seek out diversity — such as adopting test-optional policies or including essay prompts about applicants’ backgrounds. But President Donald Trump’s mandate may undermine that holistic review process, potentially increasing the legal and political risks for local universities, experts say.
“This builds on the positions that the administration has been taking in the past few months, essentially a full-blown assault on DEI,” said Sonja Starr, a professor of law at the University of Chicago.
The policy could particularly rattle Northwestern University, already under intense federal pressure amid a $790 million funding freeze. As administrators implement a range of cost-cutting measures
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, speculation has swirled about a possible deal with the White House to restore funds — and how that could reshape the school’s future policies.Unlike other elite institutions, Northwestern saw an increase in Black and Hispanic students after the end of affirmative action. Experts noted such a trend could draw increased scrutiny under Trump, even though proving race-conscious admissions with data alone isn’t so simple.
“A lot of this newly collected data could lead to fairly quick allegations of racial discrimination when, in fact, identifying racial discrimination in admissions outcomes is a much more labor-intensive process,” said Anthony Chen, a Northwestern associate professor of sociology.
Trump demands more race-based admissions data
Universities are already required to report data on their institutional characteristics through IPEDS, or the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. The National Center for Education Statistics uses that information to monitor institutions participating in federal student financial aid programs. Until recently, IPEDS only included enrolled students, including breakdowns of race, gender, test scores and financial aid.
Trump’s Aug. 7 memorandum and an accompanying directive from Secretary of Education Linda McMahon extend the collection of those metrics from just enrolled students to universities’ applicant and admitted pools.
Conservatives argue that the expanded data will show that some institutions are still giving preference to minority applicants, even after the formal end of affirmative action.
“The persistent lack of available data — paired with the rampant use of ‘diversity statements’ and other overt and hidden racial proxies — continues to raise concerns about whether race is actually used in practice,” Trump’s memorandum said.
But critics counter that aggregate data on applicant and acceptance pools isn’t enough to prove race-conscious admissions when schools use a holistic review process. Instead, it could give the Trump administration grounds to sue universities for discrimination, as part of a broader effort to reshape the higher education landscape, according to Starr.
“From the administration’s perspective, any effort to preserve diversity is unconstitutional, essentially affirmative action in disguise,” Starr said. “That legal vision, I think, is misguided.”
The Tribune contacted five of the largest universities in the Chicago area for comment: the University of Illinois Chicago, DePaul University, University of Chicago, Northwestern University and Loyola University Chicago. All either declined to comment or did not respond.
Post-affirmative action admissions
The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in June 2023 in a landmark case against Harvard University, brought by advocacy nonprofit Students for Fair Admissions, which alleged that the school discriminated against white and Asian students. The decision gutted decades of legal precedent.
In the following admissions cycle, many elite universities across the U.S. reported enrollment declines of underrepresented minority groups. At the University of Chicago, the share of Hispanic students fell by about 4 percentage points, and the share of Black students dropped by 1 point. Meanwhile, enrollment among white and Asian students increased.
But the court’s decision didn’t bar schools from pursuing other forms of diversity. Universities can still consider race-related experiences, Starr said, like interviews or essays that illustrate leadership or personal hardship. They can also take into account metrics such as socioeconomic background, first-generation status and geographic area.
“All of those things may be correlated with race, and a crucial point is that the fact that they’re correlated with race does not mean that schools are forbidden from pursuing them,” Starr said.
Northwestern, for example, introduced a new set of supplemental application essays following the ruling in fall 2023. The five prompts explore how applicants’ backgrounds could add to a diversity of perspectives on campus. During the subsequent admissions cycle, the share of Black, Latino and Indigenous students increased about 3 percentage points compared to the previous freshman class.
That trend was more likely caused by shifts in application patterns, according to Brendan Cantwell, a professor of higher education at Michigan State University. But the essays underscore how and why schools such as Northwestern seek out a diverse student body, he said. Trump’s new data mandate could have a chilling effect.
“What it really means is that if you don’t start admitting a higher share of students who are white, maybe Asian, and higher income, then this is prima facie evidence that you’re doing illegal affirmative action,” Cantwell said. “That’s the real signal that’s coming from all of this.”
In a news release earlier this month, Students for Fair Admissions said Trump’s directive would only make the process more transparent. Universities continue to use “vague and indirect measures to achieve racial balancing,” the nonprofit said.
“The new admissions disclosure requirements that the Trump administration has recently put in place will allow students, parents and researchers to gather information and data about racial and ethnic outcomes at every university,” SFFA President Edward Blum wrote in an email to the Tribune.
Diversity on campus
As Northwestern enters the fifth month of its federal funding freeze, experts say a deal with the Trump administration may be imminent. The university said it received no formal notice of the pause, which came as officials launched multiple federal investigations into alleged antisemitism on campus.
Other elite schools, including Brown University and Columbia University, reached agreements with the White House in July, paying the federal government tens of millions of dollars to restore funding. As part of those deals, they also pledged to release more data. Trump’s recent directive essentially extends those demands to all colleges and universities.
“This memo is not about admissions, it’s about submission,” said Mitchell Chang, a professor of education at the University of California Los Angeles, which is facing a $584 million federal funding freeze.
The data mandate seeks to unravel years of thoughtful and holistic review aimed at making the higher education system more equitable, Chang said. That’s particularly the case in California, where affirmative action has been outlawed since 1996. UCLA has since relied on race-neutral strategies to promote equal opportunity and address historic inequality, according to Chang.
“The playing field isn’t even, and as a result, we had to take that into consideration and make adjustments so that it’s a more fair process,” he said.
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Exactly how the changes will shake up the demographics of Chicago-area universities is still unclear. But experts said it raises concerns surrounding academic freedom and institutional independence.
“What you’re seeing with the Trump administration is part of a larger trend toward reduced autonomy and discretion for American higher education,” said Northwestern professor Chen.