The Trump administration’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is heating up on college campuses.

Guidance from the Education Department’s Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague Letter” instructed educational institutions to cease “using race in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”

If they don’t adhere, universities run the risk of losing federal funding.

On Wednesday the White House announced plans to suspend $175 million of funding to the University of Pennsylvania over its policy for transgender athletes, which allows trans women to compete alongside cisgender women.

And locally, three Illinois schools became targets of federal investigations: the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and Illinois Wesleyan University.

UChicago is among nearly 50 institutions under investigation for alleged racial discrimination related to DEI programs. Namely, the college’s partnership with the PhD Project, a nonprofit that aims to increase diversity in the business world.

Jacob Huebert, president of the Liberty Justice Center, said practices that are determinant of race and/or gender are discriminatory, which is illegal.

“If they do find that this practice is going on, then I suspect that they will cut funds and they’ll be right to do so,” Huebert said.

Northwestern and Wesleyan are among dozens of schools that received notice of their potential Title VI violations for their alleged failure to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment and discrimination.

These investigations follow anti-war, pro-Palestine rallies held on college campuses throughout the nation.

Xavier Ramey, CEO of Justice Informed, views the calls to protect Jewish communities without the same attention to Muslim communities as one-sided.

“We should not have any tolerance for antisemitism,” Ramey said. “I believe in the responsibility of our country to make sure its Jewish citizens are protected. At the same time, we understand that our Muslim students, and Palestinian students particularly, on these major campuses have not been safe.”

Ramey argued that rescinding programs or curricula that educate students on the histories and cultures of marginalized communities doesn’t support fairness or balance.

But Huebert said receiving federal money means having to follow the rules.

“When you’re talking about government institutions or state universities, they have to follow the Constitution and law anyway,” Huebert said. “They shouldn’t be treating people differently based on race or sex, so they should have serious legal consequences.”

The Trump administration’s DEI decisions are already facing a slew of legal challenges.

Huebert maintained that while initiatives meant to help students cannot mention race, support can be given on the basis of socioeconomics.

“The reality is that in America, (disadvantage) is something that can be tracked by race,” said Ramey, who added he worries about the future of historically Black colleges and universities and women-majority colleges as a result of the White House’s recent legal decisions. “These programs were not created to create some racial preference. They were created because real harms were happening, and the effect of those harms was racially specific or gender-specific.”

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