An IU Indianapolis equity training center has closed after its funding was pulled by the Trump administration.
The U.S. Department of Education announced in a news release Feb. 13 that $33 million in funding was being terminated for four equity assistance centers, including the Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center based at IU Indy. The other three centers are in Colorado, Texas and Maryland.
The news release said funding was being cut because they “supported divisive training” on diversity, equity and inclusion at schools and educational agencies.
The IU Indy training center was spun off in 2016 from the Great Lakes Equity Center, which is based in the same building on campus. That center serves as a regional hub for educational research and resources.
Several former employees posted on LinkedIn that the Midwest center had closed because of the loss of funding. Bloomington-based Indiana Public Media reported that several days after the federal order, Indiana University terminated center staff, emptied its offices and stopped all work — without consulting staff or offering an appeals process.
It’s unclear whether the Great Lakes Equity Center also has shut down, though its website has been taken down and its office appears empty.
A spokesperson for Indiana University did not respond to Mirror Indy’s request for an interview or answer emailed questions about the centers. Seena Skelton, director of the Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center, also did not respond to Mirror Indy’s request for an interview.
Mirror Indy reached out to nine other employees who worked for or with the Great Lakes Equity Center, but they either did not respond or said they did not want to speak for this story.
The Great Lakes Equity Center is part of IU Indianapolis’ School of Education and is located in the campus’ Education/Social Work Building. The center employed over 35 people as either staff or advisors.
Closure part of a trend
Antonio Ingram II, senior counsel at New York-based nonprofit Legal Defense Fund, said such centers rely on funding from the federal government. To Ingram, the closure of the Equity Assistance Centers represents what he sees as a troubling trend of deepening historical disparities, rather than trying to remedy them.
“We should be in the place as a country where we’re trying to ensure that there is a true equal playing field and even playing field for all students, regardless of their background,” said Ingram. “This is just one set of tools that I think helps effectuate that and they are now being challenged and curtailed.”
Equity Assistance Centers were started under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to help schools desegregate. The Great Lakes center opened in 2011. The other three equity centers are appealing the decision, Great Lakes Equity Center founder and senior advisor Kathleen King Thorius told Indiana Public Media.
Just a couple of years ago, the federal government considered these equity centers worth investing in.
In 2022, the Midwest center received $8.5 million in federal funding over five years from the Department of Education to provide free equity training and support to schools in Indiana and in 12 other states across the Midwest and Plains regions.
The defunding is part of the Trump administration’s determination to root out DEI initiatives and research, coupled with Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency’s crackdown on spending.
On Feb. 14, the Department of Education issued a letter warning colleges to end all race-conscious student programming and resources by Feb. 28 or lose federal funding.
And colleges and universities aren’t the only ones affected. The nonprofit Keep Indianapolis Beautiful had a $400,000 grant terminated recently. The CEO believes the cut was because of the words “biodiversity” and “tree equity” in its grant. And the Department of Housing and Urban Development cut a $139,000 grant to the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana, which the center had used to investigate discrimination.
Claire Rafford covers higher education for Mirror Indy in partnership with Open Campus. Contact Claire by email claire.rafford@mirrorindy.org, on most social media @clairerafford or on Signal 317-759-0429.
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