The Indiana University School of Medicine has removed or edited dozens of webpages about the college’s DEI and health equity programs.
The changes appear to be in response to an April 21 policy change from the National Institutes of Health, which requires institutions accepting NIH grants to agree that they will not operate programs that promote DEI or “discriminatory equity ideology” as a condition of the funding.
Two days after the NIH’s order, the college’s executive associate dean of institutional engagement, Chemen Neal, sent a message to faculty and staff stating that there would be “immediate website changes” as a result of the order, according to an email provided to Mirror Indy. Neal did not respond to Mirror Indy’s emailed questions and request for an interview.
The removed websites include DEI committees across the medical school’s departments, a health equity research center and a page describing racial justice research projects, including a study on the impact of discriminatory law enforcement exposure on Black adults.
It was not immediately clear whether these programs would continue going forward, or what specific criteria flagged these particular pages for removal, though all of them included language about diversity, equity, or inclusion.
IU School of Medicine spokesperson Rory Appleton did not respond to Mirror Indy’s request for comment or to emailed questions regarding the webpages’ removal.
Get the backstory
Earlier this year, the Trump administration attempted to cut most overhead funding in NIH grants, which would have caused the medical school to lose nearly $43 million in research funding, according to analysis by higher education policy expert and writer James Murphy. In fiscal year 2023, the IU School of Medicine received over $243 million from the NIH alone. The order regarding overhead funding is still tied up in court.
As of May 5, nearly 800 NIH grants to U.S. institutions have been terminated, representing $1.9 billion in lost funding, according to a brief from the Association of American Medical Colleges. Just over half of that amount, or about a billion dollars, went specifically to medical schools.
Threats to grants
Researchers are grappling with how to continue their work while staying in line with the changing guidance of the Trump administration.
Researcher Andrew Saykin runs the Indiana Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the IU School of Medicine.
The IU center serves as one of several clinical sites for a study on how blood vessels in the brain can cause impairment in older adults. A grant for this study was rejected by the NIH, and Saykin suspects it’s because the application included the word “diversity” in the title. The study aims to survey a representative population of various races and ethnicities, Saykin told Mirror Indy.
The principal investigator, one of Saykin’s colleagues, appealed the decision, and the grant was approved after about a month.
Saykin said new federal grants have slowed down “considerably,” but that his team is trying to keep up with the federal changes so that research into Alzheimer’s disease and dementia can continue.
“We’re trying to be responsive to any new requirements that we receive from the NIH and to address the concerns and articulate the reasons for the important scientific goals of these studies,” Saykin said, clarifying that he was speaking for himself and not on behalf of Indiana University.
Student worries med school will grow less diverse
When Nicole Libiran started at IU School of Medicine, she knew she wanted to get involved with the medical school’s DEI coalition.
Libiran, the daughter of Filipino immigrants, had been a part of a similar organization as an undergraduate and loved getting to connect with people of diverse backgrounds.
Now an incoming fourth-year medical student, Libiran serves as the vice president of social media and communications for the DEI coalition, and she’ll co-chair the group next year. Not only has her involvement helped her make friends and meet people, but it’s prepared her to be a better doctor.
“Surrounding yourself with diverse individuals with different beliefs and cultural backgrounds, that really helps in patient care,” Libiran, 24, said. “When you have a patient that may come from a background that’s similar to one of your friends, you have some increased knowledge on their beliefs.”
So when Libiran’s friend called her and told her the DEI coalition’s page on the School of Medicine had been removed, she was caught off guard by the abruptness of the decision — though not entirely surprised given the political atmosphere surrounding DEI.
Libiran feels strongly that having DEI programs in medicine is necessary — especially as the medical school has become less diverse in recent years. In 2023, nearly a quarter of the incoming class was considered students underrepresented in medicine, such as Black or Hispanic students.
The following year, that number was just under 9%, and med school dean Jay Hess attributed the decline to the U.S. Supreme Court effectively ending race-conscious admissions in 2023, according to IndyStar reporting.
Libiran worries that not advertising DEI programs like the student coalition will turn students of color off from applying to or attending the university out of fear they won’t be welcomed there.
“Why would someone even want to go to Indiana University School of Medicine if they don’t see people that look like them?” she said.
Still, the medical student-run DEI coalition is “very much active,” Libiran said, and has no plans to change its name right now.
Because the group is an independent student organization and relies on donations rather than university funding, Librian said she’s been told the group can continue operating as normal. But Libiran doesn’t think its website will be restored anytime soon, and she said faculty have asked them not to send out their monthly news blast through the medical students’ newsletter system anymore.
But she’s heartened that since the DEI coalition’s website was removed, there’s been a heightened interest among her peers in getting involved with the student organization.
“It shows the mindset of our general student body,” she said.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
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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