Long outspoken about efforts to promote diversity on their campuses, Colorado colleges and universities are now confronting a wave of uncertainty and fear after a volley of executive orders in President Donald Trump’s first two weeks in office.
After years of expanding programming to better foster diversity, equity and inclusion across campus communities, higher education leaders worry about the future of their DEI initiatives in light of Trump’s executive order outlawing DEI across the federal government.
While Trump’s attack on DEI has sent a chill across Colorado campuses, higher education leaders say their institutions will continue to stand firmly behind their focus on DEI. For the moment, they remain undeterred, even as many questions loom about whether that could jeopardize federal money they receive and as campus officials try to debunk what they see as mischaracterizations of DEI.
“What I think the opponents of DEI do is start first by turning the intention of DEI efforts on their head,” said Colorado Community College System Chancellor Joe Garcia. “They say it is about trying to advance certain groups over others at the expense of merit and saying, ‘We care more about diversity than merit.’ What we care about is ensuring that people from diverse backgrounds have the opportunity to demonstrate their merit and advance based on it. And of course in this country, historically, that’s not always been the case.”
The Colorado Community College System, a network of 13 institutions across the state serving more than 124,000 students, has no plans to stray away from the equity and inclusion practices that have shaped campuses for decades, Garcia said. However, schools will work to be “more precise” in how they explain what DEI is – and what it isn’t.
The state’s community colleges focus on nurturing the success of all students – “not advantaging one group over another” or “lowering the bar,” Garcia said.
He noted that diversity is already woven deeply across community college campuses, where any student, under Colorado law, is entitled to an education. Because of this, community colleges are often the most affordable and accessible option for first-generation students and low-income students in particular.
“Some people with great merit, with great aptitude, with great intelligence, with great ambition simply have not had the opportunity to compete on a level playing field,” Garcia said. “We don’t want to take people who are not capable and advance them over others who are more capable. We want to provide people with the tools to compete and to demonstrate that they are capable.”
Officials at Fort Lewis College in Durango, where more than half the student body consists of minorities, are equally committed to maintaining their mission and messaging around diversity.
“What remains unchanged is our unwavering commitment to the success and well-being of every member of our community,” Steve Schwartz, interim president, said in a statement. “Fort Lewis College is proud to be a place where individuals from diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives come together to learn, teach, and thrive.”
Yet, the college is reserved about how it would respond to losing federal funding as a result of its efforts to promote diversity. In some ways, the college is scrambling to make sense of the new political climate.
“We are staying away from speculating, because that only adds confusion,” FLC spokesperson Nardy Bickel said. “This is very confusing times for our faculty and staff, so we don’t want to add to that (speculation).”
A large part of the school’s identity and mission is shaped by its role as a Native American-Serving Nontribal Institution. FLC is one of 13 schools nationwide with a federal NASNTI designation – awarded to schools that have a student body of at least 10% Indigenous students.
The school’s strategic plan for 2025-30 says that one of the college’s major strengths is its “commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” A large portion of the plan is focused on furthering that commitment – which could appear at odds with Trump’s efforts to terminate DEI programs he views as “discriminatory” and “illegal.”
Other colleges and universities across Colorado are approaching Trump’s abandonment of DEI principles with a similarly wary eye.
Colorado State University in a memo last week advised staff members and faculty to carry on with projects and research tied to federal grants, agreements and contracts after a U.S. District Court issued a temporary restraining order on Jan. 31 that stopped the Trump administration from freezing federal funds.
“Work on federally funded awards may resume if activities had been stopped due to the executive orders and related stop-work orders,” the memo said. “For the time being, this includes work involving DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, and access) activities.”
Officials at the University of Northern Colorado, a federally designated Hispanic-serving institution that qualifies the school for federal grants to support more Hispanic students’ education, are also closely watching “all actions at the federal and state levels,” according to a statement. But the university still does not have a full understanding of how programming, resourcing and funding could be impacted by Trump demanding the end of DEI efforts.
“Our students come first, which means we will continue to provide support for every student who enrolls – through graduation and beyond,” UNC spokesperson Deanna Herbert wrote in an emailed statement. “The diversity within our university is an advantage we will continue to nurture so everyone in our community has the opportunity to learn through meaningful discussion of shared and different experiences, viewpoints and ideas.”
The University of Colorado, meanwhile, plans to abide by federal policies but will not automatically shut down DEI efforts.
“We will adhere to lawful orders from the federal government while not preemptively backing away from existing efforts that help us deliver on our mission,” CU President Todd Saliman wrote in an emailed statement.
The University of Colorado Boulder recently drew national scrutiny after an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal documented what it called a strategic effort to appoint faculty “who pushed the university’s research agenda in a more ideological direction, often with the aim of better recruiting minorities.”
In response, CU Boulder wrote in a statement that it has paused the Critical Needs Hiring Program – which replaced the Faculty Diversity Action Plan cited in the op-ed – “out of an abundance of caution and to ensure there are no ongoing gaps between university policy and the program’s implementation.” A third party will review the program “to confirm the processes are compliant with applicable laws,” according to the university.
The Colorado Department of Higher Education said it is committed to furthering the accessibility of quality education and creating campus communities where students of all backgrounds are valued.
“We’ll continue to support our colleges and universities in building a Colorado For All,” CDHE spokesperson Megan McDermott said in a statement. “The leadership at each institution is tasked with ensuring their efforts move forward.”
Along with statements made by several of the universities, CDHE was careful to avoid directly using the politically divisive words: diversity, equity and inclusion.
Colorado has remained relatively insulated from any of the trickle-down effects observed across the country. While other states have already introduced, and passed, anti-DEI legislation – including Utah, Kansas and North Carolina – Colorado has not.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants flow into higher education institutions across the state each year, including $45 billion dedicated to research and additional millions in Pell grants, according to CDHE. Whether that money could be at risk under the Trump administration’s focus on DEI policies is unclear.
Trump’s administration has been widely criticized as mercurial – and openly vindictive. Institutions and individuals who contradict its messaging have been threatened with or subjected to punitive acts. Trump has threatened to pull federal funding from liberal arts universities with endowments over $1 million if they continue promoting DEI programs or principles.
The institution’s official operating budget is $96 million, but FLC received an additional $43.5 million in federal funds as of December, according to the college’s spokeswoman.
“The federal funds are a significant part of our funding,” Bickel said.
FLC did not provide answers to what percentage of those funds, if any, are directly geared toward diversity efforts.
Federal funding given to UNC for the current fiscal year has totaled more than $16.4 million so far, according to figures provided by the institution. That amount is supporting federal grants and contracts for research as well as financial aid for students, including work-study programs and Pell grants.
The state’s community colleges rely less on federal funding, Garcia said. Federal funding primarily benefits community college students in the form of Pell grants through Title IV funding. Additionally, more than half Colorado’s community colleges are designated Hispanic-serving institutions so they can apply for special federal grants geared toward Hispanic college students.
Garcia said he worries about potential backlash from the federal administration and doesn’t want to put students or community college presidents in harm’s way.
“If we were cut off from receiving Title IV funding, that would cripple our institutions because it would cripple our students and make it difficult for them to attend,” Garcia said.
However, he also doesn’t see how the state’s community colleges can help prepare the state’s future workforce – one of the key reasons they exist – without an intentional focus on equity and inclusion.
“It’s really the only way we can do our job, is to think about how we’re serving all of our students and how we’re recruiting a capable and diverse workforce,” Garcia said.
Community college leaders, in particular, say the future of the state’s workforce depends on educating students from all backgrounds, particularly as demographics across Colorado continue to shift with significant growth among Latino students, immigrants and refugees.
“Colorado is already a really diverse state, and one of the things that we know is that we actually have more job openings than we have workers qualified for those jobs,” Pueblo Community College President Chato Hazelbaker said. “So I would say, even from a very practical standpoint, we need every trained worker we can get in the state of Colorado to move forward.”
Specialized efforts schools undertake to achieve that are not necessarily meant to promote diversity for diversity’s sake but to ensure more of the population is able to contribute to the economy.
One example: Colorado desperately needs more nurses and welders, Hazelbaker said. It will take every single worker to move the state forward, he said, and “there’s nobody that we can leave behind.”
An earlier version of this story misstated the percentage of federal funds Fort Lewis College receives in comparison to its total operating budget. The $43.5 million it has received is in addition to it’s $96 million operating budget. Also, an incorrect title was given for Pueblo Community College President Chato Hazelbaker.
