Arizona State University has drawn attention for changing the names of numerous graduation events, updating LGBTQ+ resources and other quiet adjustments related to DEI. Photo taken on ASU’s Tempe campus on Monday, March 17, 2024. (Photo by Sydney Lovan/Cronkite News)
PHOENIX – As Arizona’s largest university faces federal scrutiny for diversity, equity and inclusion language, it has quietly changed numerous platforms and programs. Some state politicians are calling for more.
Community and university organizations have criticized Arizona State University for making changes to its LGBTQ+ resource pages, which now direct to the student-led Rainbow Coalition website.
A university spokesperson said no resources were taken away.
“LGBTQ+ resources can be found on the Rainbow Coalition website. There have been no changes to available resources,” the spokesperson said in a written statement. “For other resource or support needs, students can reach out to the Dean of Students Office.”
ASU has also drawn attention for changing the names of numerous graduation events. The Rainbow, Hispanic, American Indian, Black African, Asian/Asian Pacific American and International Student event names changed from “convocations” to “celebrations.”
“We have two graduations, undergraduate and graduate, and everything else is a convocation at the college level or a self-assembled group that’s getting together to celebrate graduation, “ University President Michael Crow said in an interview with KJZZ on March 12.
ASU is making changes while already at odds with the Department of Education. The university is among around 50 facing a federal DEI investigation over alleged antisemitism.
“The complaint was not filed by students, employees or other members of the ASU community but by a reporter for a blog,” an ASU spokesperson said. “But OCR (Office for Civil Rights) must investigate complaints it receives even if the complaint doesn’t originate with someone of that relevant community.”
State legislation targets curriculum
Earlier this month, legislation passed in the Arizona Senate that would make universities and community colleges “ineligible to receive state monies in any fiscal year in which the higher education institution offers one or more courses on diversity, equity and inclusion.”
The House Education Committee heard SB 1694 on Tuesday.
“The idea here is consistent with federal guidelines around extracting DEI, or diversity, equity and inclusion, from university curriculum,” said House Education Committee Chairman Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, at the hearing.
President Donald Trump’s executive order on DEI relating to higher education and U.S. Department of Education memos have not mentioned “curriculum” specifically.
At the House Education Committee hearing, Natalya Brown spoke on behalf of the ACLU of Arizona against the bill, saying it’s “deeply anti-intellectual.”
“Arizona’s flagship universities – U of A, ASU, NAU – have been quietly deleting welcoming language to satisfy federal censors,” Brown said.
Members of the University of Arizona community criticized the removal of the phrase “committed to diversity and inclusion” from the university land acknowledgement last month.
DEI-related research also threatened
The Sun Devil Fitness Complex sits at the end of Palm Walk in Tempe on Monday, March 19, 2025. (Photo by Sydney Lovan/Cronkite News)
The New York Times has analyzed federal documents and identified hundreds of words and phrases the Trump administration has flagged for being DEI-related and could disrupt federal funding for a number of entities.
Cody Hays, a Ph.D. student at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, which operates Cronkite News, is currently working on an ASU research study “exploring queer experiences, community, and joy in outdoor spaces.” The word “queer” is not on the New York Time’s preliminary list.
“There is a home for this type of research at ASU,” Hays said. “Right now, there really hasn’t been any major shift in how my particular funding is being provided, but we are paying attention to potential changes that are coming.”
Crow said in his interview with KJZZ that the “broad brush policy shifts” aren’t looking closely enough at the purpose of each grant.
“The grants that we have, for instance, with the U.S. Agency for International Development are unbelievably important to the protection and advancement of American interests,” Crow said. “We just had a project canceled yesterday (March 11), which talks about the need for vaccinations and the education about vaccinations and so that project’s been canceled.”
Cronkite News identified $480 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health to public university researchers in Arizona that contain at least one flagged term.
“So what we’re seeing is sort of a high level policy decision, which is being implemented without discretion across all projects, all things, all activities, and it’s not wise,” Crow said in his KJZZ interview. “We have no DEI goals, we have no affirmative action goals. We just have an admission standard, which is the qualification to attend the university.”
Crow has maintained the university will “admit every qualified student.”
